Learning to Rest in the Grace & Peace of Our Heavenly Father #2
Observations on Galatians
Galatians 1:6-9
Remember: Galatians opens with a “Father focus”! The Father’s will & purpose is to “Draw us to Himself”, using the words of the Exodus analogy.(Exodus 19:4) But in contrast to that earthly analogy, He has drawn us to the Heavenly Promised Land of His Eternal Presence! And based upon the Will & Work He has done by His Son Whom He has sent, we are exhorted to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:22) But Paul’s concern here is that these Galatian “believers” are being “wooed” away by a false gospel of adding something to Jesus as God’s means of salvation, righteousness, sanctification, & redemption.(1 Cor 1:30) Is their soil saving soil, or is it fair and flourishing for a time,(Matt 13:1-9) only to be deluded by “do’s” into a turning away from the Living God (Heb 3:12) to Whom we only have access (John 14:6) is through Jesus Christ? Paul is adamant in his rejection of a belief with only a bit of legalism mixed in!
Vs 6: Notice that our calling is "in the Grace of Christ". Everything that concerns the relationship of the redeemed with the Most High God is "in the Grace of Christ".
1 Cor 15:10 Paul uses Grace in this one verse 3 times. Notice that this chapter (vs 1-9) starts with his declaration of the gospel, particularly emphasizing the resurrection of our Lord & the historical testimony to it, and his own historical witness (on the Damascus road & following, his own 3 years at the feet of Jesus). Verse 10 sums up how so unworthy a person could dare claim to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ & His Gospel. It is only by Grace! Grace alone explains who Paul was & how he dares to utter Christ’s gospel. And that Grace was exceedingly powerful because Paul “labored more abundantly than they all”. This is not bragging because nothing in Paul's fallen humanity can explain it. The only explanation is “yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me! If we properly understand Grace, that phrase, “yet not I, but the Grace of God”, alone explains everything in us that is “Gospel worthy”.
Phil 1:7: “you are partakers of my Grace." Paul has only one “THING” to offer his hearers, the Grace of God in found in Christ Jesus Alone!!! It was this “Grace of God which was with him” that his hearers received. It had to be the Grace of God or who on earth would receive the word of a jail bird!!!
Col 1:6: The Gospel brings forth fruit when we know the Gospel in truth. The Gospel is “life giving”. How do I know my peach tree is a peach tree? It has peaches developing on it. I have another tree that was supposed to be a peach tree, but it is dead. Now it is just a stick of wood. The Gospel of the Grace is Powerful–it bears fruit in those who “hear & know THE GRACE OF GOD IN TRUTH!!!” And that means they look like something, they bear the evidential fruit of the Spirit of Grace! (Gal 5:22-23)
2 Tim 1:9: Vs 8 is not at all comforting to the flesh for Paul says that his sufferings for the Gospel were “according to the Power of God.” We must understand the meaning & ramifications of Vs 9. We have been saved & called, not according to our works, will, possibilities or any human qualification in us. It is only by “God's purpose & Grace that were given to us in Christ before the world began!” These are Paul’s words, not mine. These are the Words of our Lord in John 6:35-48. Paul treats this Truth in detail in Ephesians 1:1-23. God isn’t seeking to “christianize” this world, nor is He trying to convince an unknown number of souls to “come to Jesus” as contemporary evangelism seems to believe. No, He is calling out of this world of sin & degradation, a people chosen in Christ Jesus before the world began. And He has chosen to do this by the foolishness of preaching! (I Cor 1:21)
Hebrews 13:9: “it is a good thing if the heart be established by Grace, & not by meats (law)”. And just as it is by Grace alone, by the Power of the Spirit that we come to God through Christ in the first place, it is only by Grace that our “insides”, our hearts, are brought into conformity with Christ Jesus’ heart, mind, & will. Let me say that again, this Grace of God that is found only in Christ Jesus, is God's only means to establish the new heart & mind & will in the new creation that is in Christ Jesus.
II Peter 1:1-4: According to Peter, God's Divine Power has given us all things that pertain to life & Godliness through the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. Phil 3:10 “That I may know HIM, and the POWER of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformible to His Death.” We will revisit this truth throughout our study of Galatians
Ephesians 1:19-20: This Power, it's benefits & inheritance, was "worked out for us when the Father raised Jesus from the dead. And this is the Power of Christ’s Resurrection, the Power of God unto salvation to all who believe of which Paul speaks in Romans 1:16. This Power of the Resurrection is the Power of Eternal Life, the very Life of God, that is the Victory spoken of in Hebrews 2:14, in which our King Jesus destroyed the angel of death, the devil, & released us from the bondage of death that binds all on this earth. History is the earth’s monument to death!!!
Vs 7-9 It is this Gospel of which Paul is so rightfully jealous!!.
Even if Paul has a “new revelation” or change of heart and begins to “tweak” this original message of Grace found in Jesus Christ alone, he is to be declared anathema! Or perhaps the angel Moroni reveals another “gospel” on golden tablets, then he is accursed/anathema, no matter how politically incorrect that may be!
At this point, I must ask, what gospel have we received? I am speaking of “in christendom”. I see strange fruit on the “christian tree”. It seems it is enough to mark a time in history when “I received Jesus into my heart”. And yet, there is no long term visible change in that heart, as evidenced by subsequent behavior. The bondage to death is still plainly visible and the flesh’s comfort in this world seems to continue. Jesus didn’t come to start one of the three monotheistic religions and to recruit disciples to it. He did not come to build churches. He came to build His Church, that number given to Him before the world began that He purchased by His Blood. And the Gospel of the Grace of God by the Power of His Spirit is His means of doing what He set out to do. Next time we will consider Paul’s ministry of this Gospel in the book of Acts.
Observations on Galatians
Galatians 1:6-9
Remember: Galatians opens with a “Father focus”! The Father’s will & purpose is to “Draw us to Himself”, using the words of the Exodus analogy.(Exodus 19:4) But in contrast to that earthly analogy, He has drawn us to the Heavenly Promised Land of His Eternal Presence! And based upon the Will & Work He has done by His Son Whom He has sent, we are exhorted to “draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” (Hebrews 10:22) But Paul’s concern here is that these Galatian “believers” are being “wooed” away by a false gospel of adding something to Jesus as God’s means of salvation, righteousness, sanctification, & redemption.(1 Cor 1:30) Is their soil saving soil, or is it fair and flourishing for a time,(Matt 13:1-9) only to be deluded by “do’s” into a turning away from the Living God (Heb 3:12) to Whom we only have access (John 14:6) is through Jesus Christ? Paul is adamant in his rejection of a belief with only a bit of legalism mixed in!
Vs 6: Notice that our calling is "in the Grace of Christ". Everything that concerns the relationship of the redeemed with the Most High God is "in the Grace of Christ".
1 Cor 15:10 Paul uses Grace in this one verse 3 times. Notice that this chapter (vs 1-9) starts with his declaration of the gospel, particularly emphasizing the resurrection of our Lord & the historical testimony to it, and his own historical witness (on the Damascus road & following, his own 3 years at the feet of Jesus). Verse 10 sums up how so unworthy a person could dare claim to be an Apostle of Jesus Christ & His Gospel. It is only by Grace! Grace alone explains who Paul was & how he dares to utter Christ’s gospel. And that Grace was exceedingly powerful because Paul “labored more abundantly than they all”. This is not bragging because nothing in Paul's fallen humanity can explain it. The only explanation is “yet not I, but the Grace of God which was with me! If we properly understand Grace, that phrase, “yet not I, but the Grace of God”, alone explains everything in us that is “Gospel worthy”.
Phil 1:7: “you are partakers of my Grace." Paul has only one “THING” to offer his hearers, the Grace of God in found in Christ Jesus Alone!!! It was this “Grace of God which was with him” that his hearers received. It had to be the Grace of God or who on earth would receive the word of a jail bird!!!
Col 1:6: The Gospel brings forth fruit when we know the Gospel in truth. The Gospel is “life giving”. How do I know my peach tree is a peach tree? It has peaches developing on it. I have another tree that was supposed to be a peach tree, but it is dead. Now it is just a stick of wood. The Gospel of the Grace is Powerful–it bears fruit in those who “hear & know THE GRACE OF GOD IN TRUTH!!!” And that means they look like something, they bear the evidential fruit of the Spirit of Grace! (Gal 5:22-23)
2 Tim 1:9: Vs 8 is not at all comforting to the flesh for Paul says that his sufferings for the Gospel were “according to the Power of God.” We must understand the meaning & ramifications of Vs 9. We have been saved & called, not according to our works, will, possibilities or any human qualification in us. It is only by “God's purpose & Grace that were given to us in Christ before the world began!” These are Paul’s words, not mine. These are the Words of our Lord in John 6:35-48. Paul treats this Truth in detail in Ephesians 1:1-23. God isn’t seeking to “christianize” this world, nor is He trying to convince an unknown number of souls to “come to Jesus” as contemporary evangelism seems to believe. No, He is calling out of this world of sin & degradation, a people chosen in Christ Jesus before the world began. And He has chosen to do this by the foolishness of preaching! (I Cor 1:21)
Hebrews 13:9: “it is a good thing if the heart be established by Grace, & not by meats (law)”. And just as it is by Grace alone, by the Power of the Spirit that we come to God through Christ in the first place, it is only by Grace that our “insides”, our hearts, are brought into conformity with Christ Jesus’ heart, mind, & will. Let me say that again, this Grace of God that is found only in Christ Jesus, is God's only means to establish the new heart & mind & will in the new creation that is in Christ Jesus.
II Peter 1:1-4: According to Peter, God's Divine Power has given us all things that pertain to life & Godliness through the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ. Phil 3:10 “That I may know HIM, and the POWER of His Resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made conformible to His Death.” We will revisit this truth throughout our study of Galatians
Ephesians 1:19-20: This Power, it's benefits & inheritance, was "worked out for us when the Father raised Jesus from the dead. And this is the Power of Christ’s Resurrection, the Power of God unto salvation to all who believe of which Paul speaks in Romans 1:16. This Power of the Resurrection is the Power of Eternal Life, the very Life of God, that is the Victory spoken of in Hebrews 2:14, in which our King Jesus destroyed the angel of death, the devil, & released us from the bondage of death that binds all on this earth. History is the earth’s monument to death!!!
Vs 7-9 It is this Gospel of which Paul is so rightfully jealous!!.
Even if Paul has a “new revelation” or change of heart and begins to “tweak” this original message of Grace found in Jesus Christ alone, he is to be declared anathema! Or perhaps the angel Moroni reveals another “gospel” on golden tablets, then he is accursed/anathema, no matter how politically incorrect that may be!
At this point, I must ask, what gospel have we received? I am speaking of “in christendom”. I see strange fruit on the “christian tree”. It seems it is enough to mark a time in history when “I received Jesus into my heart”. And yet, there is no long term visible change in that heart, as evidenced by subsequent behavior. The bondage to death is still plainly visible and the flesh’s comfort in this world seems to continue. Jesus didn’t come to start one of the three monotheistic religions and to recruit disciples to it. He did not come to build churches. He came to build His Church, that number given to Him before the world began that He purchased by His Blood. And the Gospel of the Grace of God by the Power of His Spirit is His means of doing what He set out to do. Next time we will consider Paul’s ministry of this Gospel in the book of Acts.