Galatians-Week 3-Let's all sing it...

For some reason, this song is coming to mind as I work on the Bible study. Now you can sing it with me!

The next part of Chapter 3 says this:
6Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."
7Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. 8The 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." 9So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.

Why do you think Abraham comes up here? Don't you think part of the Judaizer's argument revolved around the covenant God made with Abraham? Here's what it says in Genesis 15:2-6:
2Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will You give me, since I am childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"

And Abram said, "Since You have given no offspring to me, one (A)born in my house is my heir." Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir." And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them " And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.

Paul's point: salvation is personal. It doesn't come through rituals or observances. The circumcision that marks people under God's covenant with Abraham had nothing to do with salvation. Abraham's belief had everything to do with his salvation, or his being made "righteous" just as it does ours. And it was credited to him...before he was circumcised.

The next part of the letter: verses 10-14

10All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." 11Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." 12The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, "The man who does these things will live by them." 13Christ 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 tree." 14He 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.

15...Isn't "good" good enough?
Paul clearly answers that here. Only perfection is good enough. There are no exceptions. The law is a curse that no one can live with and Jesus took that curse for us when he hung on a tree. Without him, the perfect sacrifice, there is no good enough. And even more clearly, he is the fulfillment of that covenant.

Galatians-Week 3-It's grace, people, get the message

Ok, so we've laid just a very little background for Chapter 3. In this chapter, Paul is going to annihilate the idea that the law could ever surpass or supplant or in any way challenge the grace offered through Jesus Christ.


14. How do you know you're saved in the first place? Answer: Hello, Holy Spirit, come on in.

1You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. 2I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? 3Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? 4Have you suffered so much for nothing—if it really was for nothing? 5Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard?

Here Paul says "Don't you remember how you even came into the family in the first place? It wasn't through anything you did, but through something that Jesus did and because you believed. You experienced it for yourself and you saw the effect of this change in the lives of the people around you. Why would you think you can change it now? Oh, and you know that feeling of difference that you have...let's just call that the 'Holy Spirit.' That's proof of God's favor, proof of salvation, and your guarantee that no matter what happens here, your future is secure. Forever."

I could be paraphrasing, but really, he has an excellent point. The Holy Spirit, which is God, comes to the believer at salvation. And never leaves.

1 John 4:13: We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.

Ephesians 1:13-14: And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

Here's how someone smarter than I am said it:

No ritual, ceremony, regulation or any other thing devised or accomplished by men can pick up where the cross leaves off--because the cross never leaves off. The cross is the continuing and eternal payment for all sin, and every sinner who puts his trust in the cross is forever and continually being forgiven. A believer can no more stay saved by works than he could have been saved by works in the first place. The cross keeps moving powerfully and relentlessly through history, and it will stand forever as living proof that men cannot redeem themselves.

Galatians-Week 3-What is faith?

Chapter 3 of Galatians is a doozy, lots of questions are answered here. Big questions that can cause some confusion and stumbling among Christians, new and old alike. If you're in the class, make sure that you jump in and answer this first question if you're reading it beforehand. I'll be so impressed.

12. Were the people misled by the Judaizers in danger of losing their salvation because they were adding all these requirements to salvation?
Short answer: uh, no. They weren't in danger of losing their salvation. But they were still in big danger. They were in danger of losing all of the joy and hope that is supposed to be a part of the Christian life. And the bigger danger: the harm to their witness to the world. The world knows us because we're different. We have a hope and a future which should mark us as different. Struggling under the law, these Christians were no different than the lost to the world's eyes.

Here's another way Paul addresses the simplicity of salvation:
Romans 3:22

22This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, 23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.

There is no difference...all have sinned and all are justified freely.

13. What is faith?
I think this is a tough question, one I really struggle with sometimes. Do I have (enough) faith? I want to measure up. But it's so much simpler than that. I already do. It's more of an "either or" decision, not a measuring stick.

Here's what Hebrews 11 has to say about faith:
1Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. 2This is what the ancients were commended for.
3By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. 4By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead.

7By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

8By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. 9By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. 10For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

11By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. 12And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

13All 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. 14People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. 15If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. 16Instead, 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.

17By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, 18even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned."19Abraham reasoned that God could raise the dead, and figuratively speaking, he did receive Isaac back from death.

29By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as on dry land; but when the Egyptians tried to do so, they were drowned.

30By faith the walls of Jericho fell, after the people had marched around them for seven days.

31By faith the prostitute Rahab, because she welcomed the spies, was not killed with those who were disobedient.

32And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, 33who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, 34quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies. 35Women received back their dead, raised to life again. Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. 39These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. 40God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.

Isn't it interesting to see what the writer of Hebrews (probably not Paul) says about these heroes of the Old Testament? These are heroes of faith. And they had faith in God and his promises...and their salvation is complete only in Jesus Christ.

Is it really black and white?

Do you remember seeing this test image before? I think what you see is supposed to reveal something about you or your brain or something. Since I seem to know so very much about it, what's it doing here?

I was thinking yesterday during all the time I spent it my car hurrying to meet this appointment and then that one and then this other thing...about Paul and how much I admire his personality. We talked about this for just a minute in our Bible study, but Paul was a sharp guy. He knew his stuff. He had convincing arguments for the Judaizers so he knew the law and the requirements but he was also smart enough to let them go. He could see easily how Jesus replaced the law.

And then we read about how he confronted Peter. What a man of conviction to go up against no other than Peter, leader of the early church, and the Jews in the church at Antioch who were being hypocrites. And in public, no less. There's a reason I admire that: I am in no way prepared for confrontation in public. Peter would have wiped the floor with me. Maybe. Probably. I would have thought of snappy comebacks. Three days later.

So how lucky we are to have both men, both Peter, who is so human to make mistakes and still lead and be used by God, and Paul, who knows his stuff so well that he can correct even men like Peter.

Paul didn't live in the gray area that I live in. I understand from his letter that he very much lived in a black and white world. You're either right or you're wrong. There is no in between.

Those people are hard to find. And usually, I don't want to spend time with time. Because gray is more comfortable. Tolerance is more comfortable. Going along to get along is more comfortable. "Situational ethics" is more comfortable. And still, even for all the comfort, these are terrible choices when it comes down to the important decisions in life. So I probably need to do a little more black and white and a little less gray.

Revelation song

I heard this again on Sunday. What a praise song.

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.