Galatians 3:1-5 Holy Spirit Needs No P.K.E. Meter

Galatians 3:1-5  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 observing the law, or by believing what you heard?  Are you so foolish?  After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?  Have you suffered so much for nothing — if it really was for nothing?  Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

The interesting aspect of the above scripture is Paul's focus on the reality of the Spirit in these new Christians.  Paul assures the Galatians that the gift they have received from God is not a product of following the law but of believing on Jesus Christ and his works, especially Jesus' death on the cross for their sins.  His statements assume the Galatians recognize they had been given a gift that is easily discernible in their lives, a gift separating them from those who merely try to please God through their own efforts.  How many of us can discern the Spirit in our lives as surely as if we were given a tangible gift from a friend.  Certainly, if a friend gives us a gift, we would be able to describe it and tell anyone what the gift is like.  If the gift was food, we could tell how it tasted.  If the gift was a decorative item we could tell where we put it in our house and how it added to the decor.  If we received a gift of clothes, we could wear the item for them to receive their opinion of the new addition to our wardrobe.  But whatever we received, we would have a clear enough concept of the gift to share with others.  In today's focus, Paul assumes that the Galatians fully understand what they have received from God.  He asks them: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?  He goes on to ask: Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?  Paul does not have to explain what the Spirit is or how they can detect the Spirit in their lives: He knows they understand they have received something special and different in their lives through a supernatural gift from God.  As surely as if a friend came to their door with a gift for them, they understood that God came to their doors and gave them a special gift that impacted their lives dramatically, to the point of transforming their lives miraculously.  He is reminding them of what they should already know; consequently, the harsh words, You foolish Galatians!  Who has bewitched you?   

Do Christians today have this visceral understanding of the Holy Spirit in their lives?  Or do we need someone else to tell us how we can detect the Spirit of God within us.  At times some Christians are almost as silly as the Ghostbuster characters with their P.K.E meter to measure psychokinetic energy.  We need some visible or touchable experience with the Holy Spirit before we can accept his reality within us.  Is He real to us or is He a conjured up feeling?  Is his voice in us or is He a figment of our imagination?  In Paul's letter to the Galatians, He assumes his readers know the Spirit is real and active in their lives.  He knows they understand God has touched their lives significantly through the Spirit's work in their community of believers, but what they are not clear about is whether God's activity in their midst is partly because of their obedience to the law.  Paul addresses this confusion by asserting that belief in Christ alone has brought this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit into their lives.  Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?  If they believe the former, he calls them foolish for such a wonderful gift could not, and never has, come from man's efforts of following the law.  And he knew they should have faith to believe the latter.  As Paul wrote to the church in Rome: So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  (Romans 10:17)  These Christians had heard the Good News; they had received the wonderful Counselor, promised by Jesus before He went to the cross.  Yet they were accepting false teaching that took them back to keeping the law that Jesus said He came to fulfill (See Matthew 5:17)  Paul is saying clearly, you have the Holy Spirit of God within you, doing miracles in your midst, and you did not receive him through human efforts.  It is God who gives us the  Holy Spirit to dwell within us.  

When Paul speaks to the Ephesians about the body of Christ and the gifts of the Spirit, he writes, "But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  This is why it says: “When he (Jesus) ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”  (Ephesians 4:7-8)  He emphasizes Christ's work: He rose from the dead, set the captives free, gave gifts to men!  We did nothing to earn our place in God's family.  So we see Paul's concern for the church.  Today, in this twenty-first century, God has this same passion for us.  He wants us to be sure of the Holy Spirit's presence and his holy work in us.  As believers, do we talk about the presence of the Holy Spirit in the same way as Christians in the first century.  Or because of our knowledge and sophistication, do we think of the reality of the Holy Spirit as a somewhat nebulous idea, hardly important in the scheme of our everyday lives?  Is He really our Comforter, Advocate, and Guide or just a comforting idea?  We need to answer those questions or He becomes just another talking point in Christianity.  We must understand the Holy Spirit is not a take it or leave it aspect of Christianity: He is the essential core of Christianity.  His reality in us and through our community separates us from the rest of the world.  Before He went away, Jesus said He would ask the Father to send another Counselor to be with you forever — the Spirit of truth.  This was important because the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.  Jesus went on the say, But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.  (John 14:16-17, 26 & 16:7-11)  Jesus wanted them to understand the vital roles of the Holy Spirit.  If you are not hearing his voice today and seeking his guidance, pray that his voice will become a reality to you.  For your life depends on his presence and his direction.  Anything other than that is merely religion.  Bless you dear brothers and sisters.  

Galatians 2:17-21 Die to the Law, Live in Christ!

Galatians 2:17-21  If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that Christ promotes sin?  Absolutely not!  If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am 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 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 verses, Paul refutes the postulation by some that turning away from the law will promote lawlessness.  Just because sin can be found in a Christian's life does that mean Christ promotes sin?  Absolutely not is his response to such specious logic.  The law could not be kept, so Paul says if I rebuild the law in my life to keep me morally right, I will die, for I come under the judgment  of a lawbreaker, which is death without God.  Therefore, I chose to die to the restraints of the law, which always condemned me, but never could give me life, and now I come under the auspices of grace IN CHRIST JESUS who is life eternal.  Therefore, I do not rebuild the statutes of the law in my life; instead, I plant the saving grace of Jesus Christ in the middle of my life.  He alone through his works, not ours, has the path of righteousness that leads to eternal salvation.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.  The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  Paul tells the Galatians, I will not set aside the powerful grace of God which is Jesus Christ for the demands of the law.  If I do so, Jesus Christ died for nothing.  Only, Jesus, not the law, can build a new creature, holding the very presence of God, known as the Holy Spirit.  When we take our eyes off Jesus and begin to look at ourselves, we can begin to think that our right standing with God is based on something other than God's grace and Jesus' sacrifice at the cross.  The writer of Hebrew's said, See to it that no one misses the grace of God. . ..  (Hebrews 12:15)  If we miss the grace of God or set aside the grace of God, we miss God's best, his only plan for the restoration of his fallen creation.    

If we anthropomorphized the law, giving the law human characteristics such seeing the law as able to build something with "his" hands, we can see clearly the law cannot build something new.  The law can only reshape that which has already existed, bringing judgment on those who fall under the weight of sin.  Of course this is what the law tries to do: shape us into better people.  But no matter how much "he" works with us, the original clay cannot be reshaped enough to eliminate all of the imperfections in the original object.  THERE WILL ALWAYS BE IMPERFECTIONS!  The psalmist wrote: The LORD looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.  All have turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.  (Psalm 14:2-3)  When we look closely at mankind and his deeds and his actions, none of the objects he makes bring perfect glory to God, for God is holy, complete, without imperfection.  When Paul surveyed the battle between good and evil in his own life, he said, For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.  For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice.  (Romans 7:18-19 NKJV)  Let us consider Jesus' workshop, the Creators' handiwork.  His hands can take that which is nothing, and bring it into reality.  He can take an imperfect object and mold it to perfection, by turning it into his likeness.  He takes the imperfect and places within it that part of him that glows eternally before the Father.  All daily imperfections are constantly covered by the gift of his life on the cross: The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.  The finished work that He presents to the Father is his workmanship, God's plan for our redemption.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. (Ephesians  2:10)

God's grace is the mercy tool, fashioning us for the glory of God as his sons and daughters, adopted into his family for eternity.  In his workshop, he creates new creatures out of those who were destined for disposal.  He has gone the extra mile for us, just as he told his disciples, If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.  (Matthew 5:41)  We were all without hope, dead in our sins, but God had a plan, and Jesus was willing to be the answer to our sin problem.  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.  Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.  (Ephesians 2:1-3)  The law could not save us from our sins; it could only serve as a mirror to show us our sins, remind us of our sin nature.  But Christ came to do what the law could not do--redeem us and set us free from sin.  Jesus made a way where there was no way.  Many scripture point to the answer: Jesus Christ and him crucified!  As Paul wrote so well, if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!  The law could not save us, and we surely could not save ourselves.  But Jesus Christ willingly paid the price to meet the righteous requirements of the law and to please the heart of the Father.  Therefore, we join Paul in saying, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,  just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.  (Ephesians 1:3-6)  Praise the name of the Lord Most High!  He alone is worthy of our praise!  Bless you dear readers.    

Galatians 2:14-16 God Is Fair and Just!

Galatians 2:14-16  When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to Peter 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 ‘Gentile sinners’ know that a man is not justified by observing 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 observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. 

No one will be justified before God by any other means than faith in Jesus Christ.  No one can be acceptable to God through any other name under heaven than the name of Jesus, God's only begotten Son.  When Peter and John were arrested, thrown in jail, and brought before the religious leaders and the high priest for preaching Christ, Peter said, "He (Jesus) is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’  Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”  (Acts 4:11-12)  Paul reiterates this fact throughout his letters to the various churches, as he did when writing to the Romans: Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him!  For if, when 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 rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.  (Romans 5:9-11)  Paul knew that man's sinfulness and waywardness are so diametrically opposed to God's goodness and righteousness that a severe penalty was necessary for God to make new creations from his contaminated creation, fallen mankind.  Jesus Christ's death on the cross for the sake of mankind's redemption was this sacrifice.  No longer must each of us pay the supreme price of death because of our sins: Christ paid that price for all of us.  God, through the Holy Spirit's power, delivered Jesus from the grave by raising him in the flesh, revealing to all people that new life can come through Jesus' surrender to God's will on the cross.  We who live by faith IN JESUS CHRIST have this new resurrection life in our souls.  Now, we are just passing through this sinful world into an inheritance that Jesus has for us because of his work on the cross.   He said, In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.  And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.  (John 14:2-3)

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.  (Hebrews 11:1)  What we hope for is new life in Christ, now and forever.  This is literally the promise that God has given all mankind through the death and resurrection of Christ.  His life, death, and resurrection reveal to us that through him and by faith IN HIM, we possess eternal life NOW, and our biological death will just be the shadow of demise, not eternal obliteration.  Paul knew faith is the key to this eternal existence; therefore, he would not let Peter and his Jewish friends express anything different.  For if eternal life came through the law, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross was superfluous, a horrendous act of misery that accomplished nothing.  Paul knew this act of Christ on the cross was not only essential, but completely satisfying to God for the redemption of man.  Consequently, faith in this act of God's grace is the catalyst to new life, which actually will be fully revealed to us after our deaths.  In Hebrews 11, we see that people who lived by faith expectantly awaited a future hope because of that faith in God. They believed that their present day actions and fidelity to God would be rewarded.  We read concerning the faith of these men and women: All these people were still living by faith when they died.  They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance.  And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth.  People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own.  If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.   Instead, they were longing for a better country — a heavenly one.  Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.  (Hebrews 11:13-16)  

In Romans 3, Paul discusses a central biblical theme: the sinful nature of mankind: There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.  (Romans3:11-12)  The Jerusalem Jews believed their position with God was more worthy than the Gentiles' position.  Peter was joining with them.  They concluded that as Jews, they were people of the Light, of the Law: God's revelation to mankind.  Since the Gentiles did not receive this revelation, they were considered scavengers, dogs, filthy sinners, as they had always seen them, unless the Gentiles followed the basic tenets of the law.  The Jews believed Gentiles were not as worthy of God's intervention into their lives as the Jews who were always on the right track, serving the one and only TRUE GOD.  But Paul is reminding them all are sinners in need of salvation: no one starts with a privileged position with God.  NO ONE IS RIGHTEOUS, ALL HAVE GONE ASTRAY.  Breakfast companions, no matter where you started in life, you are the same as everyone else.  You might have been raised in a very sinful home, experiencing terrible treatment when you were young; or you might have begun life in a pristine and protective home, receiving loving and nurturing care.  Now, you might be living out the results of those early years, sometimes to your benefit or to your horror.  But Paul wanted the law-bound Jews to realize whether you are a child of enlightenment or of darkness, Jesus came to level the field by saying, I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.  He will come in and go out, and find pasture.  (John 10:9)  All who come receive the same gift: acceptance with the Father and eternal life.  For all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins.  For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God’s anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us.  God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times.  And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.  (Romans 3:23-26)  GOD IS FAIR AND JUST.  Rejoice in that fairness and justness today.  Amen!  

  

Galatians 2:11-13 No Other Name But Jesus!

Galatians 2:11-13  When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong.  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.

In today's passage, Paul reveals a deadly hypocrisy permeating the church in Jerusalem.  These Jewish Christians were propagating the idea that those who follow Christ must be circumcised to be part of the Christian fellowship.  We see in Paul's account that people who came from James to Antioch were persuading the Gentile Christians to be circumcised.  Paul confronts them, reminding them that righteousness comes by faith in Christ, and nothing else can be added to this message of redemption.  He was particularly disappointed with Peter because Peter had previously eaten with the Gentiles, but when the circumcision group arrived, he drew back from the Gentiles in fear of displeasing those who wanted to impose the law.  The followers of this aberration of the faith were very convincing, for they were able to lead astray Paul's closest ministerial companion, Barnabas, along with other Antioch Christians, convincing them that circumcision was a necessary step in pleasing God.  Paul understood this kind of apostasy from the Jewish church in Jerusalem would hinder the message of Christ to the Gentiles.  He knew this ethnicity-based doctrine would become a stumbling block for many of those in the church who were not Jews.  Jesus Christ came to save all people and not just the Jews.  Paul knew that these men of God understood that Jesus came into the world to save sinners and that because God loved the world He gave his only Son as a sin offering for whoever would believe upon his Son as Savior.  Now Paul was reminding them that they were all part of the body of Christ.  They were sinning against that body when they tried to make one part of that body less than another.  As he wrote to the church at Corinth: The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up only one body.  So it is with the body of Christ.  Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free.  But we have all been baptized into Christ’s body by one Spirit, and we have all received the same Spirit.  (1 Corinthians 12: 12-13 NLT)  No part of that body was superior and no part was lacking--all were saved by grace through faith in Christ Jesus. 

Paul states clearly in his letter to the Philippians about his previous religious convictions and customs and his former zealousness for the law,  I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ — the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith.  (Philippians 3:8-9)  He understood that adding any other requirement to be acceptable to God was heresy.  Faith in Christ's works alone brings salvation to men.  If we add another card on the table of life, we lose the hand: we do not have eternal life with God.  On the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter told Jesus they should put up a shelter to Moses, Elijah, and Jesus, a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.  Listen to him!”  (Matthew 17:5)   We who are IN CHRIST are alive forevermore because He is alive in us forevermore!  We have total faith in his works, not ours.  If we plant one work of our own in our understanding of pleasing God, we are in error.  Even if you view your whole life as being pleasing to God, you are in error: Christ alone pleases God.  The prophet Isaiah understood this when he said, all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.  (Isaiah 64:6)   Without Christ's covering, his blessing, you are naked before a righteous God, a God who will not accept any imperfection.  Who is perfect?  Jesus!  Jesus said at the end of his message on the mount: Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.  (Matthew 5:48)  How can you be perfect outside of the one and only perfect person, Jesus Christ?  Only through the shed blood of Christ our Savior do we find perfection.  Only through the way of the cross do we enter into the holy presence of God.

Today and always, man will add his elements to Christ's perfect work.  Yes, there will be signs following our ministries here on Earth.  But, we often judge others based on what we determine is necessary to please a perfect God.  We sometimes confuse the world by our additions to the message of Christ.  We talk about good things, a "right" way to live, about the imaging of God through our lives.  But how often does this message of correct living confuse the voice of God to a dying world.  Even with our children, we cloister them in environments that sometimes lessen the true and simple message that "Jesus saves."  We can be like our Mormon friends: the lifestyle saves us, the lifestyle proves we are God's own.  But dear friends, such an idea is as deadly as the circumcision message in Antioch.  There is only one message: Jesus Christ and his life in us.  When we talk to people about Christianity, we should talk to them about Christ and his finished work at the cross, not about the residue or product of serving him.  People should know Christ alone is our salvation and that we are NEW CREATURES, distinct, because of Christ in us.  Dad recently approached a man on the street so drunk he could hardly navigate.  Of course he wanted money.  Dad held his hand and told him, "I will give you money, but first I want you, even in your stupor, to remember a name above all names: Jesus."  He looked at Dad through his slit eyes and mumbled.  Dad thought, "How can this man understand anything I say?"  But he said it again: "Remember the name, Jesus, no matter where you are or how bad things get: JESUS, JESUS, JESUS!"  Then he prayed with the man about remembering the name of Jesus and about God's love for him.  This man is as we are, without hope if Jesus is not in our lives.  Nothing else matters, nothing else makes us new creatures, heavenly bound.  Paul wrote: And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  (1 Corinthians 2:1-2)  Nothing else matters: not circumcision, not our good works or religious acts, only Jesus our Lord!           

Galatians 2:6-10 Not Mature Amoebas, God's Chosen

Galatians 2:6-10  As for those who seemed to be important — whatever they were makes no difference to me; God does not judge by external appearance — those men added nothing to my message.  On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, just as Peter had been to the Jews.  For God, who was at work in the ministry of Peter as an apostle to the Jews, was also at work in my ministry as an apostle to the Gentiles.  James, Peter and John, those reputed to be 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 Jews.  All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Dear breakfast companions, what work has God entrusted you to do this day, this week, this month, this year, this life?  What abundant life has He asked you to live?  What voice are you hearing to guide your life today?  Jesus lived by every word that preceded out of the mouth of God, from the Father's heart.  (Matthew 4:4)  His food was the Father's will: "My food," said Jesus, "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work."  (John 4:34)  He lived committed to God even when it was hard:  "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not MY WILL, but YOURS BE DONE."  An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him.  And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.  (Luke 22:42-44)  Are we committed to do his will?  Paul knew he was committed to telling the truth about eternal life to the Gentiles and that the apostles, James, Peter and John, were committed primarily to the Jews.  Of course the story of Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection, had to be told everywhere to deliver people from their spiral of sin and death.  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)  This was the Good News of the gospel of Christ.  This was the message Paul received and gave his life to when He was called by Christ, and he knew that it mattered not who he was in the flesh.  What mattered was that those called of God answered that call and reached the lost with the message that he expressed to his spiritual son, Timothy: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners — of whom I am the worst.  (1 Timothy 1:15)

God has called sinners to repentance, and then He has blessed us with spiritual gifts as the Bible states, But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it.  This is why it says: “When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men.”  (Ephesians 4:7-8)  Everyone in the body of Christ has been given a special purpose, a gifting, not only to fulfill God's will, but to image Christ as well.  Although made in the image of God, we are all unique.  We have different bodies, fingerprints, countenances, and personalities.  Every person found IN CHRIST reveals the true nature of God through his or her life as we are obedient to his will and follow him.  For those outside of Christ, sin and disobedience mar the image of God and lead people away from God.  IN CHRIST, as his collective body, we display God's glory and his attributes even more magnificently than we can as individuals.  As more people are gathered into the kingdom, his beauty is manifested to the world to an even greater magnificence.  This was the task Jesus gave to his disciples and to Paul: Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.  (Mark 16:15-16)   As a flower bud opens up to reveal its glory, it becomes more beautiful as the days pass.  Likewise, as more people are added to God's family, God's beauty and glory are manifested more fully as light in a dark world.  Every person committed to God adds uniqueness to God's family on Earth.  We are his glory individually and as his body we reveal him to people looking for hope.  The world will see God and his loveliness through us as we dedicate our lives to his purposes, his will.  Sometimes, his will is hard as with Jesus on the cross; at other times life is peaceful and tranquil.  Regardless, our daily task is to live each day directed by him, seeking to do his perfect will.  We follow Jesus who said,  I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.  (John 5:30 KJV)

The world sees life as an organic blob formed accidentally through the eons of time.  To the evolutionist, we are just mature amoebas.  But God sees us as unique life, created for his glory and eventually, because of the work of Jesus Christ on the cross, as an integral part of his family.  Each of us has a divine purpose for living.  As Paul told the church in Ephesus, For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.  (Ephesians 2:10) The apostles were to tell the story of Jesus Christ to all who would listen.  Our tasks are myriad, depending where we are in the body of Christ and the demands of our daily lives.  But all of us have a specific task to carry out in this life.  All of us because of God's love for us are worth more than the most precious thing in the world: the blood of Jesus Christ, his life.  He paid the supreme price that brought us into the family of God.  We were without hope, but the Bible says, But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far away have been brought near through the blood of Christ.  (Ephesians 2:13)   We who are IN CHRIST now have an eternal home.  We can live in peace regardless of our earthly situation, without the anxiety of not knowing who we are and where we are in this time capsule called Earth.  We know we are destined for heaven, and God, OUR FATHER, truly did give us abundant life: eternal life with HIM.  As Peter wrote: But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.  (1 Peter 2:9-10)   No, we are not organic blobs, mature amoebas: we are a peculiar people, created for eternal life with God, aliens to this finite life, JUST PASSING THROUGH TO THAT HOLY CITY WHICH HAS FOUNDATIONS, WHOSE BUILDER AND MAKER IS GOD.  (Hebrews 11:10)         

Galatians 2:1-5 Children of God By Faith!

Galatians 2:1-5  Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas.  I took Titus along also.  I went in response to a revelation and set before them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles.  But I did this privately to those who seemed to be leaders, for fear that I was running or had run 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 brothers 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 remain with you. 

As Paul describes his ministry following his conversion, he is laying out his argument against those who continued to say a male Christian needed to be circumcised to be acceptable to God.  These believers asserted that without circumcision, one could not be considered a Christ follower, a part of the Christian community.  When he visited the church leaders after preaching to the Gentiles, Paul indicates that the leaders of the church in Jerusalem did not compel Titus, a Greek, to be circumcised and neither did they direct Paul, an apostle to the Gentiles, to teach circumcision as part of the doctrines of Christ.  The only request they made of Paul was to continue to remember the poor, the very thing he was eager to do.  (Galatians 2:10)  Paul wants the false teachers in the church at Galatia to realize their desire to go back to following the law does not stem from some idea of religious purity that goes back to the original followers of Christ, the apostles.  He is telling the church that even when he met with the church leaders, they did not make circumcision a requirement of the faith.  He goes on to explain that the only reason it was even an issue was that some false brothers infiltrated our ranks to spy on the freedom we have in Christ Jesus to make us slaves.  Paul's meaning remains clear throughout his letter to the church: he is preaching a gospel of faith in Jesus Christ, not a gospel of works.  As Paul wrote to the Romans: I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.  For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”  (Romans 1:16-17) 

Throughout his letter to the Galatians, Paul emphasizes Christianity comes to a person only through faith in Christ and his works.  Paul mentioned faith throughout his writing and comes to this conclusion: Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.  You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.  (Galatians 3:25-27)  There is no place in such a faith for turning back to the old covenant where the law was a constant reminder that we needed a Savior, needed a bridge to God the Father.  The Holy Spirit used Paul to remind the church that the price Christ paid was too much for us to be able to earn our salvation through our own works of righteousness.  As the prophet Isaiah said, our righteousness is as filthy rags compared to the righteousness of God.  Only Christ could make a way for us: only He could say, I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.  (John 14:6)  When we were lost sheep without a shepherd, Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, came and gave his life for us that we might have everlasting life.  Is it any wonder the Bible says, Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.  (Acts 4:12)  Paul was upset with these Gentile believers, for they were listening to false teaching; having started out in the Spirit, they were going back to the law to try to make themselves more acceptable to God.  What could ever make us more perfect, more holy, that the blood of the precious Son of God who willingly died on a cruel cross for all who would believe in him?  We should never tire of singing those wonderful words: What can take away my sin?  Nothing but the blood of Jesus?

Paul knew the significance of the battle he was fighting for the believers in Galatia and elsewhere.  He knew as we have written before that a little leaven affects the whole lump of dough.  We cannot be Christians who put our trust in the Lord by faith and then as added insurance try to prove our worth by trying to keep laws to make us feel more holy and righteous before God.  When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said,  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.  (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)  Paul depended upon the Holy Spirit and not upon human knowledge.  Now he wants the church at Galatia not to be led astray by the attempts of men who are teaching wrong doctrines and false ideas about the gospel, something that is not the gospel at all.  He is coming to them in faith to stir up their faith.  He reminds them that he is a man of faith, called by God to preach the Good News to the Gentile world, and he cares about them as a spiritual father cares about his children in the faith.  He says, we did not give in to those false brothers back in Jerusalem, and we are not going to stand by silently and let you give in to false teachers now.  He is sharing the truth with them, the truth of the gospel: righteousness comes by faith.  Paul met Jesus on a dusty road, and his life was forever changed.  He gave everything for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He told the believers in Corinth: I die daily.  (1 Corinthians 15:31)  When Paul wrote to the Philippians, he said all that mattered to him was that he preach Christ.  He went on to say, For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.  (Philippians 1:21)  Nothing else mattered to this soldier of the cross except the cause of Christ, his Lord and his Savior.  He was crucified with Christ, saved by grace, and living by faith to share the gospel that Jesus came to save sinners.  This is our inheritance, Saints of God.  May we go forth by faith, with renewed strength, knowing Christ in us is our everything!              

Galatians 1:18-24 Truth Sets Us Free

Galatians 1:18-24  Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter 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.  Later 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.

Paul affirms in his letter to the Galatians that he received his ministry and message directly from the Holy Spirit.  In the above passage he indicates that three years had passed since his conversion before he went to Jerusalem to talk to the leaders of the church.  His conversations with Peter confirmed the Holy Spirit's work in Paul, that He was preaching and teaching the pure gospel of Christ, the same gospel the disciples learned from Jesus' own lips.  Peter and the community of believers must have been amazed that this man of terror to the church had now become a lover of the church, a defender of the gospel of Christ.  Paul was a prime example of Christ totally changing a person, bringing him from darkness to light.  His life was a miracle walking.  The church praised God because of Paul's conversion.  The news spread quickly: The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.  Yes, their hearts must have been filled with joy to hear the news that the one who had wanted to destroy the church was now preaching the Good News and bringing others to Christ, especially the Gentiles.  When Paul and Barnabas were in Perga, large crowds came to hear them after Paul preached in the synagogue.  When the Jews were jealous and spoke against them, they answered back, "We had to speak the word of God to you first.  Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.  For this is what the Lord has commanded us: “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'"  (Acts 13:46-47)  We can see that Paul's commission was similar to the disciples who were told to go into all the world and to preach the gospel.  The Holy Spirit was making sure that the world knew God had called Paul as his Apostle.

Since Paul is doing the work of a spiritual father as he writes to the church at Galatia, he wants them to see him as a credible messenger, not in his own right but under the leading and direction of the Lord.  When Paul wrote to the Corinthians, he said he did not come in strength but in fear and trembling, totally depending upon the Lord, wanting only to know Jesus Christ.  He said, And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.  (1 Corinthians 2:4-5)  Likewise, Paul wants the Galatians to know that he depends upon the Lord and the resident Holy Spirit for wisdom, and he wants them to do as he has done. He is saying, you can listen to me because I am approved of God, and He has given me a message for you to hear.  He has already said he wishes them peace and grace, but he is not trying to please men, and he has warned them not to receive any false messages, even if an angel comes to bring them.  So he has made it clear that what he is saying is more important than building a relationship with them.  He cares about their souls, their standing with their Savior and their God.  And as we have already read, he immediately stated the seriousness of their situation: I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel:  Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.  (Galatians 1:6-7 KJV)  Paul knew they were listening to people who wanted to pervert the true gospel, to take away from the gospel of grace.  This was a problem he encountered at other times and in other places.  Paul had to warn the church at Ephesus that they no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.  He prayed as he surely did for the Galatians: Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.  (Ephesians 4:14-15)  Spiritual maturity means walking in the Spirit, listening to the Spirit, avoiding deception and false teachers.  This was Paul's desire for the church.

Many modern Christians would find it hard to believe they are deceived, but we are.  We are deceived by a world the glitters with one deception after another, one false god after the next.  We have so many altars where we can worship.  We may not realize we are worshipping, but perhaps it is time we stopped for a tally of our time and our resources.  One of the definitions of worship is adoring reverence or regard or the feeling of reverence or regard for any person or thing.  That changes our thinking a bit.  Where have we been worshipping lately?  One measure of our regard for someone or for something is the amount of time and money we commit to that person or thing.  Oops, did we actually say time and money?  Yes, and the Bible says, Do not worship any other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.  (Exodus 34:14)  If we make a chart and eliminate essentials such as food, housing, and other basic needs, where does our money go?  Where do we give our time?  How much time do we commit to our Lord, our jealous God, our loving Savior?  When Jesus wanted his disciples to pray with him at Gethsemane, they could not stay awake.  He came to them and said, “Could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation.  The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.”  (Matthew 26:40-41)  Is that the way of all flesh?  Is that our way?  There is no substitute for yielding to the Lord, committing to the Holy Spirit's leading.  Paul is telling the church he has a message for them, and God has sent him to them with a word of correction, a word of hope, a word of life.  He wants them to know he is called of God and knows the truth.  He is saying listen to me, dear brothers and sisters.  I used to persecute the church, but now I am here to help you, to lead you back to the truth, and if you will turn back to the truth, the truth will set you free!  (John 8:32)  We pray freedom in Christ for you today!