Psalm 146

Today we have read the first of the final five Psalms, again being “Hillel Psalms” as each begins and ends with a Hallelujah/Praise the Lord.  They are wonderful choruses that call us in to praise God with every means at our disposal at all times in our lives.  Let us consider this Psalm.

·       146:2,9: In v2 the phrase as long as I have my being translates the same Hebrew word that in v9 is translated relieves.  This may seem strange, that these translations are so different.  But actually there is a wonderful truth here.  The root meaning of the word is to turn back or return but then came to mean to say again and again, to testify, to exhort.  In this Psalm it is used in both ways.  Verse 2 says to repeat again and again, i.e. as long as I have my being, our praise for God.  Verse 9 tells us something that is praiseworthy of God, which is that He turns back or relieves the difficulties of the fatherless and widow.  So we are encouraged to give repeated praise to God, and that praise is not empty because God repeatedly blesses the needy.  Consider this illustration from Spurgeon’s Treasury of David of the extent of praising God as long as I have my being.

While live will I praise the LORD. George Carpenter, the Bavarian martyr, being desired by some godly brethren, that when he was burning in the fire he would give them same sign of his constancy, answered, "Let this be a sure sign unto you of my faith and perseverance in the truth, that so long as I am able to hold open my mouth, or to whisper, I will never cease to praise God, and to profess his truth"; the which also he did, saith mine author; and so did many other martyrs besides.—John Trapp.

·       146:3: We are not to put trust in princes but in God.  Trust means to confide in, to throw your cares at someone, to be secure.  It is often used, as here, of confidences that do not deserve our confidence or that may fail.  But the term is also used of Hezekiah’s trust in God (2 Ki. 18:5).  The Assyrian Rabshakeh challenged the people, what confidence is this in which you trust?  Their confidence was sure because it was not confidence in their own plans or in Egypt but in God!  For meditation purposes consider these confidences, all false except the last:

o   Prov. 11:15: a stranger as surety for our obligations.

o   Prov. 11:28: riches.

o   Prov. 14:16: ourselves.

o   Prov. 28:26: our own hearts.

o   Isa. 12:2: Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’

Perhaps it would be encouraging to re-read this Psalm, and as you see all the things God does for His people who trust in Him, think of the Lord Jesus.  He is the Creator (v6); many of the items listed in v7-9 remind us of His miracles; and He is the coming King who will reign forever (v10).

Gal. 3:19-26; 1 Tim. 1:8-11, Limits and Value of the Law

One cannot be justified by keeping the Law.  Was there something wrong, therefore, with the Law?  No!  The Law fulfilled its purpose powerfully.  It’s just that the purpose of the Law was not to give life.  Instead, the Law was added:

·       Because of transgressions.  In 3:22 Paul says Scripture has confined all under sin.  The same word is in 3:23, that we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed.  It is used in a similar context in Rom. 11:32: God has committed them all to disobedience, that He might have mercy on all.  The Law demonstrates we are all sinners, in that no one can keep the Law, as we noted in a previous post.  It indicts us, convicts us, and imprisons us until the provision of mercy can be made so that we can be released from sin’s prison.  In 3:24 there is another picture to help us: Therefore, the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  The Law is essential.  There is no saving faith without acknowledging one’s need, one’s sin and guilt.  That is the purpose of the Law.  It cannot give us eternal life.

·       Till the Seed should come to whom the promise was made.  Therefore, the Law has a limited purpose.  Once it has brought us to Christ, then it must step out of the way.  Christ is the One who gives life.  Christ is the Seed, who died and then was resurrected to life; in Him we have our life. 

o   This is seen in two ways.  First, the age of the Law ended once Christ came, fulfilled the Law, and paid the ransom to free sinners.  Second, it is seen personally.  As 3:23 puts it, before faith came we were confined.  Once we put our faith in Christ, we are free from the Law.  We are no longer under the tutor but are full sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus (3:26).

·       Through a mediator.  The Mosaic Covenant was mediated by, of course, Moses.  But the Abrahamic Covenant with it’s promise of the Savior, was mediated by God alone.  Again, read Gen. 15 for the story.  Abraham was asleep when God confirmed the covenant He had made to Abraham.  Abraham received it by faith.

Thus the conclusion is: If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law (3:21).  Rom. 8:3 puts it this way: What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh. 

Friends, this is huge.  The Law continues to serve the purpose today of pointing out the need in our lives (1 Tim. 1:8-11).  Use of the Ten Commandments in a gospel presentation can be helpful.  The danger will always be the human tendency to think we can please God by living up to the demands of the Law.  We can’t.  The Law must lead us to Christ, the only Savior from sin!

Gal. 3:15-18, Law or Promise?

Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law.  He paid the ransom price, recovering us from the powerful curse of death on us because we are law-breakers!  The price was that He give His life, as a sacrificial lamb.  His blood was shed, and that blood, the blood of a truly righteous Man, has been accepted by God as full-payment for our sin and guilt.  We are justified by faith, not law.

Today’s paragraph is critical to Paul’s argument in Galatians (to which, perhaps you say, they are all critical).  The picture Paul has in mind again comes from the OT and Israel’s time of slavery in Egypt.  God gave the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to each of them.  The specific words, and to your seed, appear in Gen. 12:7; 13:15 to Abraham and Gen. 24:7 to Isaac.  In each case, the NKJV translates the Hebrew word zera as “descendants.”  But the word means “seed” and it is singular, not plural.  It is not to “seeds.”  Paul is very specific about this in Gal. 3:16: He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,” who is Christ. 

Thus, God made this promise to Abraham and Isaac.  And then what happened?  By the end of Jacob’s life, the entire family had moved to Egypt (in the time of Joseph).  One thing led to another, and eventually the people of Israel (Jacob) were enslaved by the Egyptians.  They were there, we are told in the OT, for 430 years (Exodus 12:40-41).  That is what Paul is referring to in 3:17.  Not long after leaving Egypt they came to Mt. Sinai where the Law was delivered to Moses.

Now what is the point of all this?  In 3:15 we see that God made a covenant with Abraham.  It was completed in God’s promise to Abraham and confirmed in the covenant ceremony in Gen. 15, after Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness.  Thus, when God made the covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai, it did not affect the covenant He made with Abraham.  They are two different things.  God’s promise was made to Abraham and God, who is true and faithful, will not add some conditions to that covenant after Abraham has died.

Therefore, we see that law is not only contrary to faith (3:10-14); law is contrary to promise (3:15-18).  God made a promise to Abraham, that the Gentiles would be blessed through him, referring to the Messiah who would come from Abraham.  This inheritance, for Abraham’s Seed, cannot be replaced later by a different covenant.  The Abrahamic was unconditional, based totally on faith.  The Mosaic Covenant was all conditional, based on obedience. 

The point here is to establish the continuing validity of God’s promise to Abraham.  The next obvious question is, “was there something wrong with the law, that it could not justify us in the sight of God?”  And that comes next.  For now, let us praise our God for His faithfulness in keeping the promise to us through Christ!

John 3:14-16; Gal. 3:10-14, The Curse on Christ

Why did Jesus die by crucifixion?  Why was He required to die by crucifixion?  Why couldn’t He have been stoned, which was the common death-by-execution carried out by the Jews?  There are several answers to this.  First, it fits the prophecy of Psalm 22 where the death of the Messiah is predicted to be by crucifixion, even though crucifixion was not “invented” until a later time.

Furthermore, it fulfilled the story of the bronze serpent in the wilderness (Num. 21:4-9).  Israel sinned against the LORD in the waning days of their 40 year dessert wanderings.  God chastened them with poisonous serpents and many were dying.  But they cried out for mercy, confessing their sins.  God is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin (Ex. 34:6-7).  So He showed mercy, directing Moses to make a bronze serpent and put it on a pole where people could see it.  Anyone who looked to the bronze serpent was healed.  Likewise, anyone who looks to Christ, lifted up on the cross, is saved.  (Jesus emphasized the type of death He would suffer in John 12:32-33.)

But in Gal. 3:13 I believe we have the fundamental reason Christ had to be crucified.  We know that Christ became one with us, with humanity.  The Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).  But He did not become one with us in the sense that He became a sinner.  If He had sinned in His earthly life, then He would have been under the curse of sin and in need of a Savior.  He could not be anyone else’s Savior.  Yet, He did become a curse by His death by crucifixion. 

When the people of Israel had entered the land, under Joshua they began to take possession of the land through various battles and wars.  More than once (Joshua 8:29; 10:26-27), after killing the king of a city, they would take the body and hang it in plain sight.  Why did they do this?  It was to make clear that the king was under God’s curse.  Again, how did they know this?  The answer comes from the Law of Moses, in Deut. 21:23, where it says, he who is hanged is accursed by God.  This hanging put them under a curse.

Christ fulfilled the law.  He lived a perfect life according to the law.  But in His death, when He identified with transgressors (Isa. 53:12), He became a curse for us, for humans who, because of sin, are under the curse of the law.  He was hanged on a tree, the cross.  And that is what makes Christ, and only Christ, qualified as the object of our faith, faith that justifies the ungodly!  Oh what a Savior, O hallelujah!

“Man of Sorrows!” what a name

For the Son of God, who came

Ruined sinners to reclaim.

Hallelujah! What a Savior! (Phillip Bliss, Public Domain)

Gal. 3:10-14, Law or Faith? Curse or Blessing?

In our previous post Paul clarified the problem of trying to live by the law.  He pointed out the foolishness of it all, and the inconsistency law-living has with living under the New Covenant.  Then in v6-9 he zeroes in on the connection with Abraham.  If you have Abraham’s faith, then you receive Abraham’s blessing.  In 3:10-14 Paul expands on this issue of the “blessing” of Abraham.

Two ways of being righteous in God’s sight (justified) are being contrasted: either you keep the law as best you can or you put your faith in Christ.  But in fact, no one will be justified by the law (v11a).  Why, you ask?  Because the standard is impossible.  Paul quotes two passages from the Pentateuch:

Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them (v10b, from Deut. 27:26).

  … the man who does them shall live by them (v12b; from Lev. 18:5).

Deut. 27:26 is the last of a collection of curses related to the Mosaic law (27:11-26).  The Levites declared these words as the people stood on Mounts Gerizim and Ebal and pronounced an “Amen” of agreement with each one. 

The Leviticus passage was also quoted by Paul in Rom. 10:5 to make the same point: to be justified by law-keeping you must keep the whole law; you must “live” it.  If that is what you are going to try to do, remember you don’t just say you agree with the law; you must live by the law.  If you were reading through the book of Leviticus you might miss this phrase altogether.  It is tucked in a passage with many phrases.  Why does the Holy Spirit make such a big deal about it?  I can’t be sure, but I do know that in the post-exilic time of Nehemiah, when the people were confessing their sins, the exact same line was on their lips, in Neh. 9:29: they acted proudly, and did not heed Your commandments, but sinned against Your judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them.    

On the other hand, you can still be justified in the sight of God.  How?  Paul cites a third OT passage, from Habakkuk 2:4: the just shall live by faith (Gal. 3:12; also in Rom. 1:17; Heb. 10:38).  Again, it’s the faith of Abraham.  The blessing of Abraham comes upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith (3:14). 

Thus, we are under a curse because we can’t keep the law.  But by faith in Christ we can be declared righteous in God’s sight.  What in the world did Christ do that makes Him such an object of our faith?  The answer is: He became a curse for us.  Wait a minute!  No, wait forever!  How can that be?  Christ knew no sin; how can He come under a curse like us sinners, who deserve to be under the curse?  The answer is: He was hanged on a tree.  This is a marvelous truth and must be explored in our next post.

Gal. 3:1-9, What’s Wrong with Living by the Law?

What is the problem with trying to live the Christian life by my best efforts at keeping the law of God?

·       v1: It is foolish.  You’ve never been able to live that way.

·       v1: It denies the work of Christ on the cross.  Perhaps there were some witnesses of the crucifixion that were in Jerusalem for Passover when Christ was crucified.  Or perhaps Paul speaks of the crucifixion as an incontrovertible fact.

·       v2: It does not result in receiving the Holy Spirit.  The gift of the Spirit was the result of God’s grace and is received by faith.  It law-keeping cannot gain the Spirit, how can it enable us to walk in the Spirit?

·       v3: It is inconsistent with being born of the Spirit.  We are spiritual people, being born again by the Spirit.  Thus, we must walk “spiritually” or “by the Spirit.”

·       v4: It renders your persecutions meaningless.  They were persecuted standing for justification by faith.  If they now revert to law-keeping as their principle of life they have to wonder why they stood so strong.

·       v5: It denies faith, which is the basis of all other works of God in our lives.

·       v6: It is not how Abraham was justified.  This verse turns the readers’ attention to Abraham.  It is critical, of course, because Abraham means a lot to those of Jewish background.  So Paul reminds them: Abraham’s justification was by faith alone.  If you are wondering, the OT terms are true with the NT.  In Gen. 15:6:

o    Believed is Heb. aman, with the root idea of standing firm.  This is the first use of this word in the OT.

o   Counted is Heb. chashab, meaning to consider something true of someone. 

o   Righteousness is Heb. tsedaqah, referring to justice or righteousness.

·       v7: It does not make you a child of Abraham.  If you do not have the faith of Abraham, then you are not sons of Abraham  This is bold, telling a Jew he is not a son of Abraham (cf. John 8:39-40).

·       v8: It denies the unique place Abraham has in the covenant God made with him.  In that covenant (Gen. 12:3; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4; 28:14) God made it clear that all nations would be blessed through Abraham.  The blessing of which He speaks is what comes through the Messiah, the Son of Abraham, Jesus Christ.

·       v9: It leaves you without blessing.  In other words, if you seek a justification in a way contrary to the faith of Abraham, then you don’t have the blessing that God promised to the world through Abraham.

Paul’s testimony in Gal. 1 emphasized what God did.  The Judaizers want to emphasize what we do.  That is truly foolish and vain. 

Rom. 6:1-11, Identified with Christ

As I read Paul’s words (teaching) to Peter in Gal. 2:15-21, I see a summarizing of what will come in Gal. 3-4. 

·       Justification was by faith, 2:15-16.  By “justification” we mean God’s once for all declaring believers to be righteous, to have standing before Him by Christ.

·       Sanctification is by faith as well, 2:17-21.  By “sanctification” we mean God’s setting us apart as holy.  In Galatians there is an emphasis on the process in our lives.  We are (justification); we are becoming what we are (sanctification). 

The issue is raised in v17-19.  If I as a Christian sin, which I do, what does this prove?  Does it prove that God’s unconditional love and forgiveness through the cross encourage me to sin?  Certainly not!  Or does it prove that I am still a law-breaker, a sinner?  Yes, in the sense that I am rebuilding or going back to what I left behind.  Peter’s hypocrisy did this.  He was enslaving himself again to the law, denying his freedom in Christ.  Through the law, which revealed my sinfulness, I left behind (died to) the idea of living for God by my ability to keep the law. 

Which bring us to one of the most succinct statements in all Scripture as to how we live the Christian life.  Gal. 2:20!  The primary statement is: Christ lives in me.  In light of what Christ did on the cross and does in the life of the believer, Paul boldly proclaims that he has not left behind God’s grace.  And in fact, the one who makes our sanctification dependent on our doing the works of the law, that one has made the cross of Christ meaningless.  Strong words!

What does 2:20 tell us?  First, Christ lives in me because of my identification with Him in His death, burial and resurrection.  This is Romans 6 in a nutshell.  I died with Christ; and the new life I have is the life of Christ.  This is not symbolism.  It is reality.  Again, Gal. 3-4 will help us understand this when Paul teaches us about the “seed of Abraham.”

Second, since Christ lives in me, the life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God.  That is, I believe, an accurate translation; the KJV had it right: I live by the faith of the Son of God.  Most translations say I live by faith in the Son of God.  Rom. 3:22 has a similar phrase: the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ.  The point is that I live my life on the basis of Christ’s faithful work, the work mentioned at the end of 2:20: who loved me and gave Himself for me. 

We have the fundamental truth seen throughout Paul’s letters: the life I live depends totally on Christ living in me.  Phil. 4:13 says a similar truth: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.  It is Christ’s work, His strength, by which I live this life in the flesh.  This is walking by faith (2 Cor. 5:7), walking in the Spirit (Gal. 5:25), walking as children of light (Eph. 5:8) and walking worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him (Col. 1:10).

Psalm 145

This Psalm, for me, serves as a wonderful guide to prayer.  Consider!

·       145:1-3: David begins with praise.  And how good is the Sweet Psalmist of Israel in giving praise to God.  God is to him my God O King.  How personal God is to him; and how properly God is King of Israel’s greatest king.  Perhaps David excels at praise because he is committed to give it every day, forever.  And of course he excels at praise because the God he praises is so worthy of praise, and whose greatness cannot ever be fully known!

·       145:4-7: David’s prayer is my prayer, that from my wife and me generations will follow who bless God, every day, and forever.  We pray for our children and generations of grandchildren to meditate on the splendor of His majesty.

·       145:8-9: How wonderful it is to regularly confess to God His name (Exodus 34:6-7), declaring His perfections.  This is our God who again, if we will take time to meditate on Him, we will find easy to praise.

·       145:10-13:  We pray, not only for our family but for the family of God, the saints.  These days there is no end of books and seminars to help correct all the faults in the local church.  But one must ask: is there faithful prayer the kind of prayer where we struggle for God’s people?  God’s kingdom is everlasting and enduring.  Jesus said the gates of hell would not prevail against His Church.  We continually seek to redefine and remake and rework and re-everything the church.  What we must do is seek God on behalf of the saints that they would speak of the glory of His kingdom and make known to the sons of men His mighty acts.  Jesus, the Judge of every local church (Rev. 2-3), knows how to lead His saints in the way in which they should do this.  Thus we pray for several churches regularly.  Pray for God’s people!

·       145:14-16: This is what our God does, upholding those who fall and satisfying the desire of every living thing.

·       145:17-21:  This is our God!  Righteous! Gracious!  Near to all who call on Him.  Satisfying!  Preserving!  Eventually, in one way or another, all flesh will bless His holy name.  May we bless it NOW by perfecting our praise!

Gal. 2:11-21, Confronting an Erring Brother

·       The fruit of confronting an erring brother, 2:11-31.

It is quite likely Paul’s words to Peter continue to the end of the chapter; then Paul addresses the foolish Galatians (3:1).  It is also likely that this event occurred before the council at Jerusalem.  Gal. 2:11 just says, Now when Peter had come to Antioch.  It is unlikely it was any time after the council where the issue was settled. 

A third observation we should make is that this event did not sour Peter’s love for Paul.  We know this, of course, from 2 Peter 3:14-16.  But you can see it as well in all of 1 Peter, where Peter’s teachings I believe are remarkably similar to Paul’s.  For example, compare 1 Peter 1 to Ephesians 1.  What is different is that Peter wrote to a Jewish Christian audience (1 Pt. 1:1-2) while Paul wrote to a Gentile Christian audience (Eph. 1:1-2).

Antioch (2:11) became Paul’s “home church” and was the church that sent him out on his missionary treks.  Why did Paul confront Peter publicly (v11, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed)?  The answer is found in Paul’s instructions to Timothy in 1 Tim. 5:19-20.  It was clear that Peter was wrong because his actions were seen by Paul and everyone else.  Because Peter was an Elder, one who is supposed to lead God’s people and whom they should follow, he needed to be rebuked publicly, lest people assume they are to follow him.  How often we have seen this over the years when Elders are permitted to do things that are common in their community but which are contrary to God’s word.  It is one of the primary reasons for dissention in the Body of Christ.  Paul did the right thing.

Unlike Peter and even Barnabas, by their actions, Paul is straightforward about the truth (2:14).  This was hypocrisy (2:13).  The Greek word is sunhupokrinomi, a combination of “sun” (to be with someone else) and “hupokrinomi” (to be a hypocrite).  That’s what we mean about this kind of situation being a cause of dissention in the Church.  Peter took some significant people with him.  Paul had to confront him.  How we need to be faithful to God and His Word in these situations.

I love Paul’s words in v15.  Paul is, of course, a Jew.  Peter’s actions were seeming to say that Gentiles were worse sinners than the Jewish believers.  Paul says, in essence, “we Jews are just as much sinners as the Gentile sinners; we just do it with a different cultural emphasis.”  This kind of bias was present in the NT Church and it is present today, sad to say.  In James the bias was against the poor and in favor of the rich.  Look around your church today and see what divides people.  Is it a love for the truth?  Or is it a cultural difference?  Or some other division based on human standards?  In the end, these all require us to be straightforward about the truth.  Ringleaders need to be confronted publicly.  The immature brother needs careful shepherding.

Gal. 2:1-10, Paul’s Gospel was NOT from Men

·       The fruit of resisting those who denied the freedom of Christ, 2:1-5.

Paul is continuing to trace the after-effects of his conversion and call to be God’s servant to the Gentiles.  The point is that he did not receive his gospel from men but from God.  In today’s reading Paul speaks of an event that are recorded in Acts.  The question is, which event?  In Acts Paul went to Jerusalem, with Barnabas, with an offering for the Jerusalem Church (Ac. 11:27-30; 12:15).  This was precipitated by a message from a prophet named Agabus.  Many conclude this is what Paul is referring to, with respect to going up by revelation (Gal. 2:2) and his eagerness to care for the poor (2:10).  The primary problem with this view is the timing of 2:1: after fourteen years.  Paul’s conversion could not have occurred fourteen years before the trip for relief work. 

The later trip to Jerusalem, for the council of Acts 15, makes more sense.  Paul and Barnabas and certain others (Acts 15:2) went for the council; this could have included Titus (Gal. 2:3). The reason for the trip fits the statement about Titus (2:3), that he was not required to be circumcised; it was about the doctrine that was secretly brought in that denied believers of their liberty in Christ (2:4).  Paul did not yield to these people (2:5).  Furthermore, Acts 15 makes mention of James and Peter, who spoke at the council, and whom Paul references in Gal. 2:9.  The point of the council (are Gentiles required to keep the Mosaic Law) fits the whole point of Galatians.

·       The fruit of an effective ministry, 2:6-10.

Paul is very clear that, though he had conversations with the leadership in Jerusalem (James, Peter, John), they still added nothing to me.  We know this from Acts 15, that Peter reminded them of his ministry to the house of Cornelius (15:6-11), after which Paul and Barnabas shared the fruit of their ministry among the Gentiles (15:12), which was followed by words from James (who was the half-brother of Christ, an Elder, not one of the Apostles, 15:6).  In other words, they all agreed that the Gentiles were NOT required to keep the law of Moses. 

We should go back to Gal. 2:2 and consider why Paul was concerned about the possibility of running in vain.  He is concerned about his ministry being empty.  Does that mean he needed the confirmation of other men to be sure his doctrine was sound?  No!  It means he was concerned about his ministry being undermined by these false teachers.  I have seen this happen in ministry over the years.  If the shepherds are not careful, young believers can be diverted from the narrow path by deceitful or immature teachers who confuse them with a “worksy” approach to the Christian life.  People will consider it sensible if they are told, “God helps those who help themselves.”  Or “God saved you; the rest is up to you.”  This is a twisting of Scripture that is destructive to the immature believers.

Gal. 1:16-24, Things That Accompany Salvation

Remember the context.  Paul speaks of his conversion in the process of making the point that his gospel was not the product of men but of God.  God separated him and called him through His grace, so that He might reveal His Son in him.  Notice the wonderful thought: God did this when it pleased Him.  Saving sinners pleases God.  Do not forget this.  Don’t consider yourself, or your loved ones or your neighbor as too much of a sinner for God’s taste.  God delights in saving sinners.

But there is more to the story of God’s work in Paul.  The work of Paul’s conversion was performed that I might preach Him among the Gentiles.  In Gal. 1-2 we will see the fruit of Paul’s conversion.  But all the fruit has some connection with the point: the gospel which is preached by me is not according to man (1:11).

·       The fruit of a changed life, 1:16b-24.

There are some details of Paul’s life in this passage that are not totally clear, as we don’t have a record of them in Acts.  When you read Acts 9:19-25 it seems things move faster than in Gal. 1.  But the words “some days” (9:19) and “after many days” (9:23) there is plenty of room to fit a trip to Arabia and three years total time before Paul returned to Jerusalem.  Arabia actually extended to an area near Damascus.  Some wonder if this was the time when Jesus spoke with Paul, as recorded in 2 Cor. 12:1-6.  Paul does not tell us.

Here are the definite points however.  First, Paul did not  confer with flesh and blood.  Ananias went to him, to restore Paul’s sight and baptize him (Ac. 9:17-18).  Paul also spent significant time with the disciples in Damascus, those he had come to persecute.  But neither Ananias nor the disciples seem to have had a role in Paul’s developing doctrine.  We are told instead that, immediately he preached the Christ in the synagogues(of Damascus), that He is the Son of God (9:20). 

The same can be said of the brief time in Jerusalem.  By now three years has passed.  Paul’s fifteen days with Peter undoubtedly involved much discussion.  But, as Gal. 2 will substantiate, Peter and Paul were on the same page.  And why not, after Peter’s lessons learned in Acts 10 through the vision that led him to go to the house of Cornelius.  Paul also says he saw James, the Lord’s brother.  The point is that Paul didn’t get his gospel from those men.  Both Peter and James were in agreement with Paul at the Jerusalem Council (Acts 15), though both had a leaning from the Lord to ministry among the Jews.  If some apostle had given Paul his gospel, if would not be these two and they were the only ones with whom he had discussions in his time in Jerusalem.  He then made his way to Syrian Antioch and then to his hometown of Tarsus in Cilicia.

God, who had begun the work in Paul, was continuing His work in the training of the great “apostle to the Gentiles.”  If that sounds familiar, check out Phil. 1:6.

1 Tim. 1:12-17, God’s Grace and the Revealing of Christ

I want to clear up something from yesterday’s post.  We said Paul’s gospel had no roots in his Judaistic training.  The gospel is rooted in the OT.  But the rabbinical training taught justification by works, not by grace.  Paul was doing according to his training on the road to Damascus.  This leads us to the second way God worked in Paul’s life.  First, God set Paul apart from birth.  Then …

·       God called Paul by His grace, 1:15.  Grace is commonly defined as God’s unmerited favor, God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense, and “mercy I do not deserve.”  If grace is all this, then Paul definitely is a picture of grace.  He reminded Timothy of this in 1 Tim. 1:12-17.  He was a blasphemer, persecutor and insolent man.  Yet the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus.  

o   This phrase captures what happened on Damascus Road (Ac. 9:1-9).  Jesus literally called, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”  Saul had been moved by the testimony of Stephen, as the Holy Spirit was prodding him concerning Jesus.  Saul was kicking against the goads.  But in an instant, Saul submitted himself: Who are you Lord? and What do You want me to do? 

o   We do not think that the testimony of Paul is unusual.  True, people rarely have “Damascus Road experiences”.  But God’s interest in the believer begins before the foundation of the world, and it involves the call of God to hear and believe the gospel.

·       God revealed His Son in Paul, 1:16.

o   God’s grace and call, when effectively at work in the believer, result in this deep, mysterious and very real revelation of God’s Son.  There is a clear illustration of this in Matt. 16:17, when Peter answered Jesus question, Who do you say that I am?  Peter answered profoundly: You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!  Jesus told Peter that he did not come up with this on his own; God revealed this truth to him.  Paul had the same experience.  And so does every believer in Christ.

o   Humans are darkened in their understanding, separated from the life of God (Eph. 4:18).  We are at enmity with God (Rom. 5:10), blinded by Satan (2 Cor. 4:3-5).  But at the moment of faith in Christ, the veil is removed (2 Cor. 3:16; 4:6).  This is no mere intellectual experience.  It is the opening of the eyes of one who was spiritually blind, so that it can be said they truly know Christ.  This is the “anointing” John spoke of in 1 John 2:27. It is the fulfillment of what was promised in the New Covenant.  No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD (Jer. 31:34).

Gal. 1:11-17, Separated from His Mother’s Womb

Gal. 1-2 revolve around Gal. 1:11-12: the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man; rather it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

To make the point, Paul shares his salvation testimony.  But he doesn’t share the entire story as recorded in Acts 9:1-19 and which he shared publicly in Acts 22:1-21 and 26:1-23.  Instead, he tells about the event in a way that demonstrates the point, that the gospel was not given to him by men.

In 1:13-14 he makes it clear that his gospel message was not something he picked up from his training in Judaism before his conversion.  On the one hand, he persecuted the Christians.  That doesn’t sound like someone in sync with the doctrine of the Christians.  On the other hand, Paul was well known to have excelled in Judaism.  When he was converted, he left behind both his lifestyle as a persecutor and his education in the traditions.  Don’t misunderstand this: he benefited by his studies in the Old Testament, but his gospel had no roots in the training he received in Judaism.  His gospel was something clearly different, and that is important for the Galatian churches to understand.  They too needed to leave behind their Jewish roots in order to embrace the gospel of Christ.

A Christian testimony is more than just what has been left behind in our lives; it is also about the point in our lives when we believed God and it was counted for righteousness (Gen. 15:6) as well as the change brought about by that event.  Paul uses three powerful statements that emphasize what God did in his life.  Again, his gospel did not come from men.  Let us consider these three statements.

·       God separated Paul from his mother’s womb, 1:15. 

o   This is a claim made by or about others in Scripture: Isaiah (Isa. 49:1,5); Jeremiah (Jer. 1:5); John the Baptist ((Lk. 1:15-16); Samson (Jud. 13:5); and, of course, Christ (Lk. 1:31-35).  The term separated is used two other times referring to Paul’s ministry.  In Rom. 1:1 he was separated to the gospel of God.  In Ac. 13:2 the Spirit directed the Antioch elders to separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them. 

o   This term makes it clear this was not something Paul chose for himself; God did this.  Paul believed God was at work in his life before he became a Christian, even before he was born.  The things Paul left behind, such as his Roman citizenship, his training in Judaism and his persecution of the Church, were used by God throughout his ministry.  God knew what He was getting; He specifically set Paul apart for this ministry.

We need to understand this in our own lives as believers.  God knew us before we were born.  And when He separates us to His purposes, our past is not a liability in God’s eyes.  In His hands, even our past sins and failures can be used by God.

Gal. 1:3-10, A Curse on False Prophets and Teachers

Paul was an apostle of God, appointed by the Head of the Church.  And he was an apostle to the churches.  But today’s passage should strongly remind you that he was called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God (Rom. 1:1).  To the typical “grace and peace” start of one of his letters (1:3), Paul adds a description of our Lord Jesus Christ as the One who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age (1:4).  The issue that caused Paul to write this letter was a challenge to the gospel.  It was another gospel, one that would not satisfy the guilt of our sins, and one that would leave us bound to this present evil age.  In other words, it was not another gospel because it had no good news.

You cannot miss Paul’s passion in this matter. This fervency is the result of his calling by God.  Yes, God has moved Paul to anger.  It is easy to understand.  Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles; Paul will clearly establish this in the first two chapters of Galatians.  Believers in the Church who have Jewish background are insisting that the believers in the Church who have a Gentile background must live by the Jewish law, the law of Moses.  Included in this is the requirement that they undergo circumcision in obedience to God’s word to Abraham (Gen. 17). 

Why is this such a horrible thing?  Let me use Peter’s words in the council at Jerusalem to give the short answer: Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear (Ac. 15:10)?  It makes sense, doesn’t it, that this would be the first doctrinal challenge to the early Church?  God was doing something new and amazing, through the New Covenant.  It brought together Jew and Gentile in one Body of Christ.  We can understand that this might be expected.

But having said that it makes sense, it is still a twisting of the gospel that should bring a curse on those who continue to perpetrate it. 

·       Any message that takes away from the grace of God through Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, is a different gospel (v6), and is not good news at all, but rather perverts the gospel (v7).

·       This message troubles people rather than delivering them from the present evil age (v7). 

·       Those who preach this message are accursed (v8-9).  They have taken Christ, who is unique and complete in His person and work, and have added to Him. 

This corruption of the gospel creates confusion in those who hear the message, and thus must be condemned soundly.  It must be!  That is why Paul is right in his anger.  He is not out to please men but to serve Christ.  Galatians should, if nothing else, teach us that “tolerance-in-the-name-of-love” for those who corrupt the gospel is anathema.  In other words, let him be accursed!

Psalm 144

In the previous Psalms David was overwhelmed in his spirit (142:3; 143:4).  Here he is in great waters (144:7).  In other words David is again in a situation where he is incapable of handling his situation on his own.  He cries out to God.

This Psalm, I believe, should be understood by the final verse: those whose God is the Lord are happy/blessed.  While David is in a difficulty here, this Psalm sees him as in great confidence in the Lord (v1) and ready to lift his praise to the Lord (v9-10).  Again we are reminded: there are times of distress when we are overwhelmed; but this is not the end of our affliction.  Even before we experience the actual deliverance from affliction, our prayer of faith should bring us to happiness (not giddiness but to a sense of joyful blessedness simply because God is our LORD!  Here is how that happens.

·       To David, God is everything he needs and desires, his Portion (v1-2).

·       Further, David recognizes that God is not simply in heaven but that He has condescended to know him and come to him (v3-4).  Believers today should be supremely aware of this given the Incarnation of Christ, the greatest visit of God to earth.

·       Thus what David prays for is that God, who has condescended, will continue to bow down and come down to us in our neediness (v5-8).  He prays for this for his personal happiness (v9-10) as well as for the happiness of the people of God that he shepherds (v11-14).  These verses contain a great description of what Israel would be like if they were experiencing God’s favor in their homes and land.

May our prayer come before God when we are surrounded by great waters.  Thus we too will have God’s happiness.

Gal. 1:1-2; Acts 13:42-48, Paul the Apostle (3)

Before we jump into the opening verses of Galatians, I would like to conclude our teaching in the previous two posts with a reminder.  It is always appropriate to check into the credentials of those who share the word with us.  Pastors are to be evaluated by their relationship with the word of God, not signs and wonders.  We are right to graciously test TV or internet personalities, Christian musicians, radio preachers, even the Sunday School teacher.  Do not put out the Spirit’s fire; do not treat prophecies with contempt.  Test everything. Hold on to the good, Avoid every kind of evil (1 Thess. 5:19-22).

Now, let us consider Paul the Apostle according to Galatians.

·       Paul, an apostle of God, v1.  Technically, Paul was an apostle of Jesus Christ.  But he says he’s an apostle through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead.  Paul was appointed by Christ, as were the Twelve.  But for the sake of the Galatians he feels compelled to note that there is no difference between the Father and Son on this matter.  The Son is one with the Father, and did the work the Father gave Him to do.  Thus, Paul’s appointment is not through men but through the Son and the Father.

o   His reference to the Father raising the Son from the dead is important here.  Rom. 1:4 tells us that Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by the resurrection from the dead.  His resurrection is the crowning sign from God the Father that the work of Christ is effective and complete.  Death is defeated.  Eternal life is now offered through the gospel.  Furthermore, the resurrected Lord is now at the right hand of the Father, awaiting the submission of His enemies, of the nations (Gentiles). 

·       Paul, an apostle to the churches, 1:2.  Let us not lose sight of this.  Yes, Christ appointed Paul.  But the appointment was to the Body of Christ.  This was, after all, the work Christ was and is doing to this day: I will build My church (Mt. 16:18).  I love the way Paul says this.  First, no mere mortal made him an apostle (v1).  And yet, he is surrounded by “men” (all the brethren who are with me, v2).  He did not separate himself from the body of Christ.  And then, his letter is to the churches of Galatia.  The raw meaning of ekklhsia is a gathering of citizens called out from their homes into some public place, an assembly (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon).  There were several of these Christian assemblies in the region of Galatia and Paul addressed them in this letter.

Thus we see that an apostle has a responsibility to the Father and the Son, and also to people, the Churches.  Is this not what we expect?  Jesus Christ had the same responsibility.  Submission to His Father; love for His Church!  That is our calling as well; let us not forget it.

2 Cor. 11:1-6,12-15, Paul the Apostle (2)

Paul’s ministry was known by its fruit.  His authority came through his calling, his being appointed by Christ Himself.  And Christ then gave to Paul, as to all the Apostles, confirming signs (miracles) that were similar to what Christ Himself had done.  This was typical of the major revealers of truth (like Moses) in God’s plan.  Paul reminded the Corinthians that they had seen the marks of an Apostle (signs, wonders, miracles) just as others had in the first century (2 Cor. 12:12). 

This was by the design of our Lord Jesus.  In choosing the Twelve, Jesus equipped and empowered them to preach the gospel, to cast out demons, and to heal diseases (Mark 3:14-15).  Paul was also so equipped, and demonstrated these signs on his first missionary journey when he was in the Galatian region.

·       The first recorded miracle of Paul occurred when he temporarily blinded the sorcerer Elymas (Ac. 13).

·       In Acts 14, he healed a crippled man in Lystra.  The power and wonder of this event is seen in how the Gentile crowd designated Paul and Barnabas as “gods.”

There is one other “confirming proof” of Apostleship that Paul refers to in in 2 Cor. 10-13.  These chapters are Paul’s “uncomfortable” claim to be an Apostle.  He didn’t like tooting his own horn, but was pressured into this by some at Corinth who doubted his authority.  This is critical.  Apostles of Christ speak for Christ.  They establish the truth of the One who is the way, the truth and the life. 

Here's what is interesting.  In confirming his Apostleship, it was not the famous sermons or long list of successes we might expect.  Instead, he speaks of the suffering he endured as an Apostle.  Consider what he calls to their attention:

·       11:6: he was not a trained speaker.

·       11:7-8: he did not “take an offering” from them, depending on other churches.

·       But the real proof was in his afflictions on their behalf: working hard, enduring stripes (whippings), imprisonment and near-death experiences (11:23-24), stoned, three times shipwrecked (11:25) and in constant “perils” (11:26; count the “perils”).  There were deprivations of basic needs (weariness, sleeplessness, hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness (11:27). 

·       12:1-6: Even in the matter of having had a real-time conversation with the risen Lord Jesus, Paul would not speak in a way that might exalt himself above Christ.

·       12:9-10: The bottom line is that Paul preferred to boast of his weaknesses, so that Christ would be the one exalted.  If we stop to think about it, these are the kinds of things that speak well of servants of Christ.

Why was Paul concerned with this?  Again, it is because he speaks for Christ. His concern is that Satan would deceive people, so that they would not be solely devoted to Christ (11: 1-4).

Gal. 1:1-5; 1 Cor. 4:9-13, Paul the Apostle

The basic idea of Gal. 1:1-5 is that Paul is an Apostle.  By definition, the Greek Apostolos is a messenger, but in the NT usually a special messenger, with a special status, enjoying authority and a commission that came from Someone higher than the Apostle himself (Alan Cole).  In the NT the word is used in the general sense, applied to others than the Twelve (2 Cor. 8:23), but it is rare.  Here, as in most places, it refers to a unique individual.

·       1 Cor. 12:28: In the Church He gave first Apostles, then prophets, etc.

·       Eph. 2:20: The Church is built on the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets.

·       Eph. 3:5: God revealed truth to the Apostles and Prophets.

·       Eph. 4:11: In the Church Christ gave Apostles, prophets, evangelists and pastors and teachers.

·       1 Pet. 3:2: NT Apostles are on a par with OT Prophets.

·       Rev. 21:14: The names of the Twelve Apostles adorn the foundation of the New Jerusalem.

·       Matt. 19:28: The twelve Apostles will rule on thrones in heaven, judging.

·       Acts 2:42-43: The Church from the first devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching.  And everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and miraculous signs performed by the Apostles.

·       Ac. 5:12: The Apostles performed many miraculous signs among the people.

How could you identify a true apostle of Christ?  Was it their flashy program? worldly success? or urbanity?  No!  As Paul says in today’s passage from 1 Corinthians, the Apostles were certainly put on display, but it was like men condemned to die in the arena.  They appeared weak in the world, the scum of the earth.  The point, I believe is, that while they had authority from God, backed up by the miraculous signs, they appeared in the world as less than ordinary men.  It was not their massive crowds or financial success.  Rather, it was their fruitfulness.

Am I not an apostle?  Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?  Are you (the Corinthians) not the result of my work in the Lord?  Even though I may not be an apostle to others, surely I am to you!  For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.  (1 Cor. 9:1-2)

We need to think about this.  Again, it was not the size of the crowd but the fact that there were new disciples, followers of Christ, including from Corinth.  They were following Christ by following Paul.  Because Paul’s ministry produced followers of Christ, his ministry had the seal of Christ.  Paul could say, Imitate me, just as I also imitate Christ (1 Cor. 11:1).  The same can be said today, I believe, in our evaluation of the numerous ministries around us.  By their fruit we can know them.  By our fruit we will be known.