A good memory...a good thing?

Isaiah 55:10-11
10 As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

I don't know whether you have the same affliction that I do...perfect recall exactly when you don't want it. I can easily remember dumb things I've said and really smart things I meant to say...a minute, an hour, a day too late to say them. I've been "critically evaluating" my words lately, particularly the things I should have said to make a difference.

And when I do that, I begin to worry about where I'm messing up today. As I did my Beth Moore study, I was reminded of what God says in Isaiah: God's words aren't going to return empty. They will accomplish his purpose. So...onward we go, learning His word, hearing His word, and. most importantly, speaking His word so that it may accomplish His purpose.

Galatians-Week 2-Does this make sense?

In the last part of Galatians 2, Paul really answers the problem of saying one thing and then requiring the Gentiles to do another. He has no patience for the lack of logic in the Judaizers' argument.

15"We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' 16know 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.

17"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! 18If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. 19For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. 20I 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. 21I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!"

11. How does it make sense to expect them to do what we couldn't?
It just doesn't make any sense for privileged Jews who have believed that Christ died to save them and rejected the law as the way to salvation to now burden the Gentiles with the keeping of that law. The law doesn't work. The problem isn't what man does but who he is.

John 3:16-18 says this:

16"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. 17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.

And not once is there a line drawn that says there are different requirements. Whoever believes shall have eternal life. Simple. To the point. Hard to miss. And, uh, fairly well known today. And really, if the Judaizers were right, then Jesus was wrong. And that's a problem. A big one. Legalism cancels out the cross. If the Judaizers were right, Christ died for no reason.

Here are the 2 pillars of Paul's gospel: the grace of God, and the death of Christ. Both are destroyed by legalism.

So then, why do we even have this law from Moses?
Check out Chapter 3.

Galatians-Week 2-Ever met a hypocrite?

The real question is more like "Ever been a hypocrite?" In the next part of Chapter 2, Paul recounts an episode where he had to confront Peter and even his right-hand man Barnabas over behavior which was damaging his message.

11When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. 12Before 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. 13The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray.
14When 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?

I've mentioned more than once how much I like Peter. The reason I like him: he messes up. If there's anyone who should know better than to say one thing and do another, it's Peter. Anybody remember the story of Peter, his vision, and his visit to the centurion Cornelius? I posted about it not too long ago. In order to really get the message through to Peter that the law had no impact on salvation and that this gospel applied to all men, God had to send a vision, an interpreter, and a divine appointment complete with wonders performed through the Holy Spirit as Cornelius and his family were saved...to Peter. He confirmed it at the Jerusalem council. But in Antioch, it was time to put it in action. And he was happy to do so, eating with the Gentiles what they ate...until some men claiming to be from the Jerusalem church showed up and put the law about clean and unclean back in place through peer pressure. Peter withdrew from the Gentiles...and took more Jews with him, harming the witness to the church.

And Paul didn't stand for it. He confronted Peter publicly and directly to correct the problem.

10. Thanks, Peter. Thanks, Paul. What do we learn from this? (Not strictly a question, but my brain is tired.) Let's make it multiple choice...
A. Even strong, talented, gifted, inspired leaders can make serious mistakes.
B. Right words without right action = hypocrisy
C. Truth is more important than outward appearance of harmony.
D. "Situation ethics" or changing the rules depending on the crowd is ungodly.
E. Sometimes you just have to confront falsehood.
F. All of the above. (You knew that was coming, right?)

Paul had no trouble confronting Peter to restore the truth. Society's current emphasis on tolerance makes that rare today. Think that's dangerous?

Galatians-Week 2-"Christian" Laws?

How easily do you fall for "human thinking" instead of "God thinking?" It's easy to slip back into the way man thinks instead of holding on to the way that God thinks even after you become a Christian. It's so easy to do. And that's how the Judaizers worked, appealing to that human thinking. Paul knew this would happen. In Acts 20: 28-30, he warns the Ephesians:

28Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers.[a] Be shepherds of the church of God,[b] which he bought with his own blood. 29I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.

In Chapter 2, Paul continues to defend his right to preach this gospel. First by using the endorsement of the church in Jerusalem, led by the men the Judaizers believed to be the true apostles.

9. Is this gospel of salvation by grace through faith...even for Gentiles...something that Paul thought up on his own?
For this answer, let's look at Acts 15. I like to go back to Acts because this is Luke's account of the early church history, a secondary source for Paul's on first-hand account.

1Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." 2This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. 3The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the brothers very glad. 4When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.
5Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, "The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to obey the law of Moses."

6The apostles and elders met to consider this question. 7After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: "Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. 8God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. 9He made no distinction between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. 10Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the disciples a yoke that neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear? 11No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are."

12The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them.

The Council's Letter to Gentile Believers
22Then the apostles and elders, with the whole church, decided to choose some of their own men and send them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas. They chose Judas (called Barsabbas) and Silas, two men who were leaders among the brothers.

So this message had been debated by the main church in Jerusalem already in response to some trouble at Antioch. And just what do we know about the church at Antioch? (Well, I didn't know that much, but maybe you do.) Antioch was the first church to Gentiles, pastored by Paul and Barnabas, and it was the first place follwers of Christ were called Christians...just a little trivia.

On this trip to Jerusalem, Paul met privately with the apostles there to tell them his gospel. Along the way, Paul shared the gospel and saw many people converted along with signs and wonders that were a confirmation of his gospel's endorsement by the Holy Spirit. The apostles confirmed his message and added nothing to it. And just to be extra sure, Paul took along Titus, a Gentile. And no one required his circumcision for salvation. And while he was there, he was commissioned to reach the Gentiles.

What kind of laws do we hold up for meeting God's approval in today's church?

Here's Paul's version of events from Galatians 2

1Fourteen years later I went up again to Jerusalem, this time with Barnabas. I took Titus along also. 2I 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. 3Yet not even Titus, who was with me, was compelled to be circumcised, even though he was a Greek. 4This 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. 5We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.
6As 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. 7On the contrary, they saw that I had been entrusted with the task of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles,[a] just as Peter had been to the Jews.[b] 8For 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. 9James, Peter[c] 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. 10All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.

Galatians-Week 1-The Truth

Here's the rest of the first chapter:

Galatians 1:11-24 Paul Called by God
11I want you to know, brothers, that the gospel I preached is not something that man made up. 12I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ.
13For you have heard of my previous way of life in Judaism, how intensely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. 14I was advancing in Judaism beyond many Jews of my own age and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. 15But when God, who set me apart from birth[a] and called me by his grace, was pleased 16to reveal his Son in me so that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not consult any man, 17nor did I go up to Jerusalem to see those who were apostles before I was, but I went immediately into Arabia and later returned to Damascus.

18Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. 19I saw none of the other apostles—only James, the Lord's brother. 20I assure you before God that what I am writing you is no lie. 21Later I went to Syria and Cilicia. 22I was personally unknown to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. 23They only heard the report: "The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy." 24And they praised God because of me.

8. So which is right...Paul's gospel or the Judaizers? What do the other apostles say?
Again, we don't have a letter written by the chief Judaizer, but it appears that one of the arguments that Paul had to answer was that he wasn't a "real" apostle and that he made up his own gospel. And, of course, he would make it easier than it really is because he wants people to like him.

From what we know of Paul, do you think he ever really spent a lot of time wondering if people liked him? I really don't think so. People feared him. Feared his reputation. Immediately upon his conversion when he began preaching, people wanted to kill him. He had to be rescued by being lowered over the city wall in a basket.

Here Paul is establishing that his gospel came directly from God, not men. He didn't train with the apostles but immediately set out to learn and preach. And people were saved. The gospel the Judaizers held to: based on the early books but even more so on interpretations made by the teachers of the day. The Jews lived by many rules, determined by interpretation of chruch leaders. Paul's gospel clearly wasn't man-made: there were no lists of rules, and man had very little importance in his own salvation...and idea clearly contrary to what the Judaizers believed.

And later on Paul's going to say...oh, yeah, and that message that the apostles in Jerusalem have and the one that I've been preaching without them...it's the same one...because it comes from the same place: Jesus Christ.

And just to finish up Chapter 1, we can take a look at 2 verses that the Judaizers didn't have. Another reason to celebrate the printing press, right?

Here's what Luke wrote in Acts 26:15-18 about Paul's conversion and Jesus' purpose for Paul:

15"Then I asked, 'Who are you, Lord?'

" 'I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,' the Lord replied. 16'Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you. 17I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

And later on, we have Peter's confirmation of Paul in 2 Peter 3:15-16 (from the Message translation)

14-16So, my dear friends, since this is what you have to look forward to, do your very best to be found living at your best, in purity and peace. Interpret our Master's patient restraint for what it is: salvation. Our good brother Paul, who was given much wisdom in these matters, refers to this in all his letters, and has written you essentially the same thing. Some things Paul writes are difficult to understand. Irresponsible people who don't know what they are talking about twist them every which way. They do it to the rest of the Scriptures, too, destroying themselves as they do it.

Galatians-Week 1-A New Gospel?

Here's the next part of the letter, Galatians 1:6-10:

6I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! 9As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned!
10Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Paul's letters usually start out with a peaceful greeting, an encouraging word to struggling groups of Christians, but, to me, it seems he's just a little put out with the Galatians...the churches that he'd established and invested the time to teach the gospel as it had been directly revealed to him...these believers were being misled...they were deserting. Different translations will have different words but Paul was amazed or astonished that they were deserting, willfully leaving the gospel.

7. So what's this "new gospel" we've been hearing about?
Unfortunately, we don't have a letter from the Judaizers outlining their dogma, but it's easy to see that it's contrary to Paul's message of salvation by grace through faith. The Judaizers agreed that Christ was the Messiah, but they wanted to make salvation for the Gentiles contingent on a type of conversion to Judaism or, really, to make Gentiles subject to the rules of Judaism (specifically, circumcision) before they could be saved.

It's easy to see why the Galatians would have been, at the very least, confused by the Judaizers. I also sometimes wonder about how easily I am saved. Simple faith is all it takes, but it seems like there should be so much more. And the Judaizers have a simple solution to that: yes, you can say that Christ is who He said He was, but then why don't you also try to live under the law perfectly like we've tried and failed to do for centuries? (I don't know if they really said that. I may be paraphrasing.)

Do you see why Paul reacted to strongly? A righteous Pharisee who knew the law and did his best to live it, converted and taught personally by Jesus Christ himself, committed to spreading His gospel...to be confronted again by the law, creeping its way back into the early church to confuse the new believers in Galatia.

What was Paul's gospel before conversion? What is his purpose after conversion?
What kinds of substitute gospels to people preach today that tempt people to depend on something besides Christ for security and salvation?

The MacArthur NT Commentary says this:

Satan's primary target for false teaching is the doctrine of salvation, because if people are confused about that they have no way of coming to God in the first place and thus remain under Satan's influence and control. He teaches lies about church organization, Christian living, the Lord's return, and many other things. But his first concern is to undermine the heart of the gospel, which is salvation by grace, made possible through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can talk about whether Paul was changing the gospel to make people like him tomorrow...but I'm thinking "No" is the answer.

Galatians-Week 1-Apostolic Authority

Those are big words...apostolic authority...what do they mean? It's easier to ask

5. Just who does Paul think he is? What gives him the right to tell off the Judaizers and assert so firmly his version of the gospel?

First, let's take a look at what Paul says, how he begins his letter: Galatians 1:1-5

1Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead— 2and all the brothers with me,
To the churches in Galatia:

3Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Who is Paul? He's an apostle...
apostle--one who is sent with a commission, an envoy or messenger who was chosen and trained by Jesus Christ as His special emissary for proclaiming His truth during the formative years of the church. (Note: anytime you see something that sounds really smart like this, I didn't come up with it. Probably it's from the MacArthur NT Commentary.)

An apostle had to have seen the resurrected Christ. That sorta limits the pool. Here's what Acts 1:22-26 says about replacing an apostle (who had to be replaced because...well, he had his priorities out of line.)

21Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, 22beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.

23So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. 24Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart. Show us which of these two you have chosen 25to take over this apostolic ministry, which Judas left to go where he belongs." 26Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the eleven apostles.

6. How in the world could Paul be an apostle? The original 12, sure. They came from the disciples and the others who traveled with Christ. Remember Saul/Paul's conversion story? There on the road to Damascus? Jesus spoke to him there. And then Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 15:3-8:

3For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5and that he appeared to Peter,[b] and then to the Twelve. 6After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

So basically, Paul says here that his gospel and that of all the apostles comes directly from God, not from men. They were all taught by Jesus. Oh, yeah, and that his gospel contains grace and peace, grace for salvation which leads to peace for living.