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Galatians (Gal 1:1 KJV) Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by
Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised him from the dead;) The apostle Paul was called into the ministry, not by the training or calling of men but by the Lord Himself. He was on the road to Damascus to persecute believers in Jesus Christ when the Lord called him. Notice here that Paul refers to both the Father and the Son, Jesus Christ showing clearly two separate persons. They are both divine and they are both God but they are two persons. Jesus told us that they were one just as He wants us to be one. This is like a husband and wife becomes one when they marry. One in unity. One in purpose. The reason so many marriages are breaking apart is because they are not one anymore. They are going their separate ways, doing their own thing, trying to "get a life" and their losing their way. Churches break apart because they are not one in purpose. God cannot break apart though. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are one. 3 Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus
Christ, Jesus gave Himself for our sins, He chose to do so of His own free will obeying the will of the Father. He wants to deliver us from this present evil world. If we would rather love this present evil world instead of accepting what Jesus has to offer us, we will perish along with this evil world. In the book of 1 John, we are told to "Love not the world neither the things of the world, if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. " This is pretty strong teaching. We cannot lose our love for the world by ourselves. We need to be changed, delivered. This is what is to come by the new birth. We repent of sins and make a turn around by our own choice but the new birth is a spiritual gift from God that renews the inner man. We may one day have to make a choice to remain in the faith or to go back and be in bondage to the world again. The will of the Father is that we be delivered from those old things and walk in the newness of life. Jesus gave Himself also that the Word might sanctify us. The receiving of the Word cleanses us and sanctifies us. Every time we read His word and receive what we read into our inner most being, we are being cleansed and sanctified. To neglect the word is to rob our own souls. Ephesians 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the word, Oh let us not take these things lightly. Let us hunger and thirst after these things. They will not only save our souls but those with whom we come in contact with; those who may accept the teaching of the Word. 6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called
you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Paul was deeply troubled that some converts were removed to another gospel away from the grace of Christ, some were perverting the gospel of Christ. Some were trying to get people to go back under the law and try to keep the law in order to be saved. They were teaching that the grace that came through Jesus Christ was not enough to save them. They taught that they needed to observe the law of Moses and rituals like circumcision in order to be fully accepted by God. Paul teaches that they were making null and void the salvation by grace if they went back into the old law of trying to be saved by the works of the law. No man except Christ has ever kept the law in all points anyway so it would be a futile attempt if we tried to be saved that way. It is much easier to trust in Christ to provide our salvation by faith in Him. He already paid the price or penalty for sinning against the law of God even though He himself did no sin. He paid the price for it anyway so that those who trust in Him can have their sins washed away. We don't have to pay for our own sins since He already paid that penalty on our behalf. This freedom and deliverance from sin is only for those who believe in Him. If we do not believe and receive this free gift of salvation, then His death on the cross will not count for us. We are saved by faith in Him and nothing else. We may try to go back and keep the law but we will fail, the flesh is too weak. All we have to do is break the law in one point and we would lose our salvation. There is no way we can do that. If we don't accept God's plan of salvation, we will have to pay for our own sins. The penalty of sin is eternal death. The gift of God is eternal life. Why do so many refuse this? Maybe they prefer to hold on to the old man of sin. Jesus Christ makes us free. We do not have to be in bondage to anything. The Holy Spirit is there to set us free. Whether it be lust, alcohol, drugs, selfishness, pride, wickedness, greed, it doesn't matter. Jesus Christ makes us whole when we come to Him with all our hearts and repent of our old ways and receive Him. If we are still having a problem with sin after receiving the gospel of salvation, maybe we are holding back and not fully trusting in Him completely. Jesus Christ makes us whole. Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation was the warning Jesus gave to us. Through Christ we are redeemed and delivered from the curse of the law, which tells us what sin is and how sin destroys the soul and separates us from God. By reading the Old Testament we can see what sin is and how we need a savior. There is no way on our own that we can possibly stop sinning. We need a savior. Through faith in Jesus to take away our sins, we become free from sin. He gives us the power to overcome sin. We not only get our sins forgiven but we can overcome them. The drunkard doesn't have to be under the bondage of alcohol anymore. He can be free. The murderer can be free. The thief can be free. This is the living water, the power that comes into the inner man that God gives believers so that they no longer desire the sins of this world but begin to desire the things of God instead. He ushers in a new life and a new beginning. We cannot possibly get rid of sin without the power of God. So what if we fail after receiving Christ and go back into sin. Don't give up. Seek the face of God immediately and get that old stuff back out. We never want to be in bondage to the old nature again. Its a new covenant. The new covenant is totally dependent upon the Lord Jesus Christ to save us. Free from the curse of the law, free from the heaviness of sin. Free to live and walk in the Spirit that is given to us from God. A new birth, living water and a new beginning. Old things are passed away and all things become new; a new and living way. Its like the newness of spring, a new innocent baby and a clean rippling brook flowing freely with no pollution. This is more than just turning over a new leaf and trying to do a few good deeds in ourselves. This is receiving the power of the Holy Spirit to give victory over sin. God's gift is inward. It is power given to us from God. Its something we cannot possibly earn or merit by our own outward actions. It is freely given to all who believe. It is so simple and free that a little child who has done nothing but believe can receive it. We just need to recognize our need to be saved and our need to depend upon Jesus Christ alone for salvation. To simplify this: Without Jesus we are lost, with Jesus we are saved. 9 As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach
any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed. Paul was pointing out the fact that the gospel he received was straight from the Lord. He did not receive it by hearing another preach or by Jesus when Jesus walked on the earth before He was crucified. Paul received the gospel by the Lord himself in a vision on the road to Damascus. Afterward he learned the word through the Holy Spirit and continuing in prayer. 13 For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the
Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it: Paul once persecuted believers in Christ and even consented to their arrest and murder. His conversion shows the mercy and power of God. It show had those that do murder can be saved if they come to Jesus. It also shows clear what true salvation is. Paul did not continue to murder after his conversion. Paul truly repented of his old life and was born again. He was no longer a murderer because Jesus Christ had made him free from the old man and the old nature. This should settle the question of whether we should expect to continue in sin after we are saved and expect to be saved. If a murderer is saved by grace, does he continue to murder and still expect to be saved because he is under grace. No. We must not go back under the bondage of sin if we have received the gift of eternal life. If we make mistakes and sin, we have to go back, repent and make it right with God as soon as possible. We will make mistakes but we must not excuse ourselves in those mistakes and say well I'm only human and I'm under grace so I don't have to repent. Sin should always grieve us, whether we do it or someone else. I don't like the term, "I'm just a sinner, saved by grace." We are saved by grace and cannot save ourselves but if we are saved by grace we are no longer to consider ourselves sinners. Paul though was an important man in the Jewish religion, he was respected and feared. He forsook all this to become a despised, hated, follower of Jesus Christ. If this gospel were not real he would not have given up the position he had. 15 But when it pleased God, who separated me from my
mother's womb, and called me by his grace, Paul rejoices that God remembered him and called him to this purpose even while he was still within his mother's womb. Thank God his mom didn't believe in abortion. Look what we would have missed. He completely gives the Lord glory for his salvation and not anything he (Paul) did religiously to earn it. Paul after receiving this revelation from the Lord did not ask advice from other disciples but followed the leading of the Spirit. 17 Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them, which were
apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus. He didn't even see Peter until three years later. 19 But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the
Lord's brother. We can also rejoice and praise God that Paul was converted. Through his conversion many more were to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is the power of God. He, which once was a lost, misguided persecutor of the church, was now a glorious powerful man of God because of the grace of God. This thing is real, folks. Yet, Paul took the time to write this epistle because of the seriousness of forsaking the gospel of Jesus Christ and learning of a new gospel.
Galatians 2 (Gal 2:1 KJV) Then fourteen years after I went up again to Jerusalem
with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. We see hints here of the cause of trouble. Paul was explaining that the apostles never demanded that the Gentiles be circumcised to be saved. They recognized that the same God who anointed them and worked with them (the Jews) in signs wonders and miracles also worked with Paul. They saw that God was saving uncircumcised Gentiles as well. They knew that Jesus was the way of salvation and it was not necessary for the Gentiles to have to be circumcised in order to receive the full gift of God, which is salvation, by faith in Jesus Christ. Some were trying to add to the gospel by telling people they needed to be circumcised in order to be really saved. Circumcision is good for health reasons but it has nothing to do with the salvation of the soul. The blood of Jesus was sufficient to take away sins. Circumcision does not take our sins away. I don't think the book of Galatians is trying to tell us that since we are saved by grace it doesn't matter what we do, we would still be saved. It doesn't encourage us to go back into the bondage of sin and expect salvation because of the grace of God. We become servants to whoever we decide to serve. If we choose to return to a life of sin we will be back into bondage from which Jesus Christ came to save us. If we are Jews and choose to go back under the law of Moses and trust in the works of the law to save us then we have fallen from the grace provided through Jesus Christ. We then become under bondage again to do the whole law which as we have seen before is impossible. The book of Galatians is written to emphasize the salvation through Jesus Christ and show that this wonderful gospel is for Gentiles as well as Jews. In Christ there is no wall of separation. I will add here that the gospel is for all races that will believe. No race is exalted above another when they come to Christ. He breaks down that wall of separation. We do have to come through Christ. Without the Spirit of God dwelling within us there will always be friction between the races. There will always be cultural differences, divisions and disputes because of different upbringing and traits. Through Christ we become one in the body of Christ. I will say this plainly and I say it with love. The church of Jesus Christ should not have any racial hatred or bigotry. I'm not talking about what the world calls bigotry. We must preach and warn against any sin in the spirit of love and meekness. I'm talking about exalting ourselves above another race and thinking we are superior. Thinking God has chosen our race, denomination, church or group above another is dangerous. We all have to be saved by the same method, repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. We all have nothing that we achieved by our own works or natural talents. The mercy and grace of God saves us all in the same way. We have nothing that we did not receive. Man, woman, Jew, Gentile, Black, White, Oriental, and any other race is the same through Jesus Christ. I will add here that this latter day move to put down all white men is not the right spirit either. It also stirs up hate. The feminist movement stirs up hate against men. Everyone that stirs up people and cries for their rights need to be careful not to stir up hate against others. The group that you stand up and protest against may have rights too. Hate can be stirred up on either side of the fence. That is why we don't get along. The blood of Jesus has broken down that wall of separation. This is the only power to bring lasting peace and end racism. When I see and read about countries fighting and warring against each other because their religion is different or because of a past grudge, or because of the differences in races it troubles me. People blow up buses, schools and buildings, killing little innocent children for vengeance and it is mind-boggling. Yet I realize it is so easy to yield ourselves to that spirit of hate. Jesus Christ can make us free of that if we let Him. Let us yield ourselves to His spirit and be filled with LOVE instead. Be filled with the Holy Spirit, be filled with the pure, free, refreshing presence of God that frees us from the old nature. Let prejudice, pride, hate, be gone from our lives forever. The Holy Spirit sheds the love of God abroad in our hearts. We have no business calling ourselves children of God and hating someone of another race. We see by studying these scriptures that some were coming in to spy on Paul and Barnabas. They didn't like the liberty they had in Jesus Christ. They wanted to go in and find something to accuse them of. Let us not desire to find fault in our brothers and sisters in the Lord. This doesn't mean that we overlook sin and not correct it but we should not have the attitude that we go in purposely to find fault either. By love serve one another. Love will cause us to correct sin because we do not want any to be lost. We do not want those we love destroying their testimony or messing up their lives, but love also will not let us desire to find fault, look for faults and get on the phone to expound their faults to someone else. That is not walking in love. (Gal 2:9 KJV) And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be
pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the
right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the
circumcision. Paul and Barnabas was given the approval of the pillars of the gospel. They saw the calling of Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. (Gal 2:11 KJV) But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to
the face, because he was to be blamed. We see Peter here succumbing to the pressure of pleasing men instead of God. Paul boldly corrected him. See how easy it is to fall prey to prejudice? Just get with a group of people who have a reason to gripe and feel justified in their cause and see how easy it is to get carried away with hate and bitterness. As Christians we should run and avoid it like the plague. We must not hate others because of their religion, denomination or color. 15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the
Gentiles, Paul makes it clear what saves us. Not keeping the works, rituals, and feasts of the law but by faith of Jesus Christ and believing in Him. 17 But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we
ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. Here we see that Paul is not preaching that through Christ we are allowed to go back into sin and still be saved. Christ is not the minister of sin. If we backslide and return to our old ways after receiving Christ, we are building the things that was destroyed when we came to Christ. Christ makes us free from the curse of the law and free from sin. We still have the power to choose like Peter did. Let us be determined to choose the righteousness of Christ instead of trying to establish our own righteousness without Christ. Submit to the righteousness of Jesus Christ, receive the word and the Holy Spirit that gives power of sin. We must daily yield to His Spirit. 19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might
live unto God. We can't be good in ourselves. Christ now lives within us to take away that desire to sin. We then can have power to walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh. Jesus Christ makes us free.
Notes on Galatians 3 (Gal 3:1 KJV) O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye
should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,
crucified among you? We are not to use the book of Galatians to excuse sin or to teach that because we are saved by grace then there is no way we can ever be lost. In fact Paul is teaching here the opposite of that. Some here were trying to go back under the bondage of the law. Paul is pointing out that if they start trusting in the law again for their salvation instead of Christ then they have fallen from grace. So it is possible to fall from grace. They had received the Holy Spirit not by keeping the law of the Old Testament but by the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our salvation, mercy and the baptism of the Holy Spirit comes by our faith in Christ. My dad told me the other day about a man that he knew that had such a hard time being saved. He thought he had to be good first. He felt that he wasn't good enough to be saved and had such a hard time believing that Jesus wanted to save him. Thank God he was finally saved and realized that it was by the grace of God and by the Holy Spirit and there was nothing he could do to earn salvation. In fact Jesus came to save those just like him that felt unworthy of salvation. Little did the guy realize that none of us deserve God's salvation. All have sinned. Paul was trying to get these Galatians to realize that they were saved by the faith and the power of God not by their observance of the law. It was a free gift that came when they believed in Jesus Christ for their salvation. He was not giving them permission to sin and still expect to be saved. He was pointing out that the observance of the old law, which was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, was not what saved them, and was not what filled them with the spirit. The law was not what did the miracles, healed the sick or baptized in the Holy Spirit. Some of the Galatians had begun in the Spirit and were trying to perfect themselves in the flesh by observing circumcision and trying to force others to observe it even to the point of making the Gentiles think that circumcision was necessary in order to be accepted by God. We today need to be careful not to add to the commandments and teachings of our Lord. We also must not take away from the teachings of the Lord. Jesus Christ is our salvation and not observing certain feast days, rituals, rites, etc. As far as sin is concerned we are told by our Lord to abstain from all appearance of evil. That should be enough to make it clear that we are not to go back into sin and expect to be saved because we are under grace and not under the law. (Gal 3:4 KJV) Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in
vain. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. This is what we should seek; the new birth in the inward man and not trust in outward religious observances to save us. Salvation is a change in the spirit of man. (When I use the term man, I mean women too) This conversion that is more than just religion. There are not too many words we can use to describe the new birth but it is something real and something totally from God not accomplished by our own works. It is received by faith in Jesus Christ. (Gal 3:6 KJV) Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Abraham was saved by faith. All Abraham did was believe God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Although Abraham was a good man that was not what saved him. He was made righteous because he simply believed God. This made him justified by grace. He believed. He believed from the heart. This faith will affect our outward actions but the outward actions alone without faith has no power to save. We are saved by faith. Our faith then produces actions. If we say we love someone but do not show that love with outward actions then we can have reason to doubt whether we have any love. True faith will be seen in our outward actions. It is not the outward actions though that saves, it is faith in Jesus Christ. (Gal 3:7 KJV) Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same
are the children of Abraham. We actually become the children of Abraham by faith in Christ. The children of Abraham were the ones that received the promise of salvation. They were the ones chosen by God. This is our hope. We can become children of Abraham by faith in Christ. In Abraham was all nations to be blessed. This promise came before Abraham received the covenant of circumcision. He was saved by faith and not the works of the law just as those who also believe in Jesus Christ are saved by faith and are entitled to be called the seed of Abraham and the children of the promise. Outside of Christ is no salvation. This does not mean that the natural children of Abraham are cut off forever. If we search all of the scriptures it shows God's dealing with the nation of Israel and that they too will accept this salvation by the grace of God through Jesus Christ. The sum of it all is that no matter what race, color, or lineage we are, we can be saved only one way and that is the way of faith through Jesus Christ. As I have said before, if there had been any other way, Jesus would not have had to die on that cross. (Gal 3:9 KJV) So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful
Abraham. Why would we want to be back under the curse of the law. Without Christ we would all perish. At some point in our lives we would have broken the law in some way. We can try to keep it but we would fail. God gave us a way of perfection. He sent someone who did keep the law in all points and paid the penalty for breaking the law even though He did not break it. That is why His death can count in our place. He paid the price for our salvation if we believe in Him. We are free from the curse of the law. We are saved by faith now and not the observance of the law. What freedom, what joy, and so glorious. (Gal 3:11 KJV) But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of
God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith. God made a way of salvation so simple that a child can receive it; simple child like faith. Not a bunch of rituals, rules, ordinances but simple faith in the one He sent to us to take away our sins and make us a new creature. "The New Birth" Faith is powerful. (Gal 3:17 KJV) And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed
before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot
disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect. The law was given 430 years after Abraham. Abraham received the promise of salvation through faith years before. The law did not make that promise null and void. In the seed of Abraham (Christ) was all nations to be blessed. Salvation is for all that believe not just Abraham's natural descendants. (Gal 3:19 KJV) Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator. What was the purpose of the law then if it does not bring salvation? It showed us what sin was. It showed us what God expects. It shows us the need to have a savior, a need to be forgiven. It was given as a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. It was added because of transgressions. There would have been no need of the law if man would not transgress and sin. Sin is transgression of the law. (Gal 3:20 KJV) Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. The law condemned and did not bring salvation. It showed us how all have sinned. It did not bring a way out of sin. That was the promise to come: The hope of salvation through Jesus Christ. The law brought death instead of life. (Gal 3:22 KJV) But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the
promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. The law shows all have sinned and need a savior. (Gal 3:24 KJV) Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto
Christ, that we might be justified by faith. Faith makes us children of God. We have been baptized into Christ. 27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on
Christ. This should end all thoughts of one race exalting itself against another. In Christ there is neither Jew, Greek, Gentile, male, female, slave or free person. Jesus Christ makes us the same. Notice this is not possible without Christ. There is no other power great enough to bring perfect harmony between the different cultures. Look at history. There have always been wars, fighting, racism, and hatred and will be until everyone on earth has genuinely been born again by the spirit. This is something that can't be forced by passing laws, protesting, complaining, and fighting. You can't force anyone to love one another. It is done by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no other way. If our countries are having problems getting along, they need Christ. If our schools are crumbling, we need Christ. If crime is prevailing, we need Christ. If adultery, fornication, pornography is rampant, we need Christ. The old saying, "Jesus is the answer" is true. There is no other way of salvation.
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