Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Galatians-Week 3-How many sons does Father Abraham have?

To finish up Chapter 3, Paul writes:
26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, 27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

16. So we're all "heirs according to the promise." What's the promise?

Thanks to Jesus, we're all heirs, God's chosen people through Abraham. John 1: 12 says: Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

We believers have been clothed with Christ. Whatever is in Christ belongs to you and to me if we believe: the love of the Father, access to the Father, the full resources of the Father.

And even more importantly...there is no distinction in our new family. Superficial and temporary differences have no place in our body.

How does the law lead us to Christ?
External conformity to the law is easy. What about internal conformity?

One last comment on the law...here's what Jesus said about it (the Message version):
Matthew 5:17-20
"Don't suppose for a minute that I have come to demolish the Scriptures— either God's Law or the Prophets. I'm not here to demolish but to complete. I am going to put it all together, pull it all together in a vast panorama. God's Law is more real and lasting than the stars in the sky and the ground at your feet. Long after stars burn out and earth wears out, God's Law will be alive and working.

"Trivialize even the smallest item in God's Law and you will only have trivialized yourself. But take it seriously, show the way for others, and you will find honor in the kingdom. Unless you do far better than the Pharisees in the matters of right living, you won't know the first thing about entering the kingdom.

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