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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184606
07/17/17 05:35 PM
07/17/17 05:35 PM
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Garywk  Offline
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Originally Posted By: dedication
Originally Posted By: Gary K
dedication,

What law is Peter quoting?


Quote:
Acts 10: 28 And he said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation; but God hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.



As I said -- there is validity in both aspects when dealing with the text in Ephesians.

And in Galatians 2, what is causing Peter to do what he did there? What is causing the men from James to act as they did in so intimidating Peter? What was the foundation they were using to make Peter so uncomfortable that he stopped eating with the Gentiles? The link to Acts 10:28 is profound.

The law being referred to in this story is the Oral law. There is no other law that requires the separation of Jew and Gentile. And there is no salvation in following the Oral law, a law made by man.

Paul says, of his life as a Pharisee, that he was blameless before the law. What law? The Pharisees did not live by the 10 commandments. They broke them on a regular basis for the Oral law told them to. They lived by the Oral law. That was their guide, their study, their overwhelming passion, the rule of their lives. And it was by that law that the Gentiles were excluded from all association with Jews. That was the enmity.

By that law a man could live blamelessly, for it was a law of externals. The Oral law had no provision for the inner man such as God's law does. Thus Paul could honestly say that he had lived a blameless life with respect to the law. And the laws and theories of the rabbis were held above the law of God by the Jews. It was basically suicidal for a Jew not to live by the Oral law in Jewish society, for if he did not he was excommunicated, banned from the temple, and from all aspects of financial and societal life among the Jews.

It is only from this paradigm that Paul can be really understood. It was this that the Judaizer's were pushing. That the Gentiles had to live by the Oral law. God's law is righteousness. The Oral law is not.

What follows is again from F.C. Gilbert's book, Practical Lessons from the Experience of Israel.

Quote:
RABBINICAL LAWS AND USAGES MADE MEN SLAVES

19. Still the question remains open, “What is this yoke of bondage,” from which Christ came to free men, and which could not be borne by the ancestors of the Apostles? The answer is very simple, when we understand the laws and usage at the time of Christ, and the terror which they struck to the hearts of the people if they failed to observe them. When we understand the nature of some of these, and the penalties attached to them, then we can appreciate the saying of Christ and of the Apostles, and also understand that the freedom which Christ came to give was freedom from human fear and from human slavishness. All this was sin. [36] And what was true of the condition of people in Christ’s day at His first advent, is equally applicable at any other period of church history.

LAWS TOUCHING THE SABBATH

20. Perhaps in nothing was this bondage of human servitude more apparent than in the rabbinical laws of the Sabbath. There was not a moment, from the afternoon before the Sabbath, till the close of Sabbath, but what there was some law which bound the man either to do or not to do. He must not take a needle of thread or a piece of cloth with him any time Friday afternoon, for fear he might carry it with him on the Sabbath. To do this he would bear a burden on the Sabbath. Hence he must lose a half day’s labor on this day.

21. He must know every point of the Sabbatic laws concerning the toilet. For instance, when he first awakes, he must be sure not to touch his eyes with the tips of his fingers before he washes, because of the evil spirits which have been resting there during the night. If he should do so, he might be blind, or meet with some other calamity. When he washes, he must be sure to remember that he only washes certain parts of him, and this not with soap. For to wash with soap is unnecessary labor, and would be a violation of the Sabbath. He must be sure not to eat a particle of food before he goes to synagogue service; for this would not be a delight to the Lord, but simply carrying out his own delight. He must be sure to empty his pockets of everything, even to a pocket handkerchief, for this would be an unnecessary burden.

22. He must know just what kinds of knots may be tied and which are not permissible; for should he fall and injure one of his limbs if he tied his shoe-strings with the wrong kind of a knot, he would feel that this was because he violated the Sabbath.

23. He must be sure that he have no occasion to do any letter writing of any kind on the Sabbath, not even writing two letters of the alphabet together, if by so doing it would form a word which was intelligible. He must be very careful that he know the proper distance of a Sabbath day’s journey; for should he get over the line, he would be subject to Ma-koth Mar-doth, the flogging of rebellion.
159

SEVERITY OF RABBINICAL LAWS

24. In fact he must know the thirty-nine general divisions of laws touching the Sabbath, their subdivisions, their sections and sub-sections, their headings and their appendices, their smallest minutia and detail. Should any of these be unobserved, and one of the rabbis discover it, he would be subject either to punishment, excommunication, or to be placed under the ban, which would mean loss of livelihood, and the enduring of other hardships.

25. Should he, however, be on a journey during the Sabbath, or having started on a journey, find it impossible to return before the Sabbath begins, he must remember just what to do with his mule, his loose money, his pocket-book, his Gentile servant and everything else that concerns his Sabbath observance. For if everything were not punctiliously observed, whatever happened to him that day or for some time afterward, he would be told it was no doubt due to his having failed properly to keep the Sabbath. Thus scores, hundreds, yes, even thousands, of laws were made and enforced by the rabbis; and a11 must be observed as sacredly and as rigidly as the very law of God itself.

SCRIBES ENFORCE THEIR LAWS

26. We have a forcible illustration of the making and enforcing of laws by the rabbis, in the second holy day of the festivals, and its observances. For instance “ These are the six days on which the Scripture has forbidden the doing of work. The first and seventh day of the Passover; the first and the last of the Feast of Tabernacles; the day of the Feast of Pentecost. And the first day of the seventh month. All these are called holy days. The sabbatism of all is alike.” – “Laws of the Holy Days.”

“But to us who observe two days what is unlawful on the first day is also unlawful 6n the second day; and he who disregards the latter, is to be excommunicated.”- The Ways of Life.”

“Though the second holy day is of the words of the scribes only, everything which is considered unlawful on the first, is not permitted on the second. And every one who profanes the second holy day, even though it be the New Year’s, whether it be a matter relating to the Sabbath, or to work, or by going beyond the limit of the Sabbath, he is to be excommunicated, or to be beaten with the flogging of rebellion, providing he be not a Talmudist.” – “Laws of the Holy Days.”

27. We can thus see the force of the Savior’s statement, when He said that the scribes placed burdens upon the poor people, which they themselves would not touch with their finger. “Everything that is unlawful on the Sabbath, either because it has the appearance of work, or because it leads to work, is unlawful on a holy day.” – “Laws of the Holy Days.”

EFFECT OF THESE LAWS ON THE PEOPLE

28. Well could the Savior say of the scribes and Pharisees, that they made void the commandment of God, in order to observe their tradition. [37] The catalogue might be enlarged, in citations of the Sabbatic and other laws; (b) but sufficient has been given to show what a burden these were upon the people. It made life rigorous; it bound them with cruel bondage; it took away its joy and pleasure; it enslaved the minds as well As the bodies of men. There was many a man who believed in Jesus, but did not dare to confess Him for fear of excommunication. [38] And for a man to be excommunicated meant almost death. Did they only appreciate the meaning of the Savior’s words of freedom, and accept Him, they would certainly have been made free men. They thought and believed that the only way salvation and righteousness could come to them was by the punctilious observance of the thousand and one rabbinical sayings of the scribes.


Notice it was only by the punctilious observance of the Oral law that the pious Jew could obtain salvation, and they had been taught from the time they were a small child that the sayings of the rabbis were to be believed above the Torah. This was the slavery. This was the yoke of bondage. This was the enmity between Jew and Gentile.

It is in understanding this that the Sermon on the Mount,the stories of the Gospels, and much of Paul's writings, really come alive. Because of the fear that the Jewish people lived in of the rabbis and their exactions enforcing the Oral law Jesus had a very hard time making any headway with the people. In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is destroying the Oral law. Almost everything He did was bent toward destroying that influence upon the people by demonstrating the love of God. Yet the belief was so embedded and so enforced through fear that many just could not accept His teachings. Fear of breaking the Oral law ruled the lives of the Jews. Their entire religion was a fear of breaking the innumerable laws it contained.

The Oral law is the source of the Pharisees enmity against Jesus. It is the source of the disciples being unable to understand the words of Christ. It is the source of the hatred of the Samaritans and Gentiles. It is the codified enmity that Jesus destroyed. It is the reason Paul had to spend years in the deserts and wilderness before taking up the ministry God intended that he should for he had to be brought to the point where he could actually break free from its influence and not look upon the Gentiles the way he had all of his previous life.

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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184608
07/18/17 03:22 AM
07/18/17 03:22 AM
dedication  Offline OP
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Quote:
Galatians 2L16 knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.

17 “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not!


People who seek to be justified by the law will make hundreds of "oral laws", it's the natural result of seeking justification by the law.

A person is not justified by the works of the law (not the ten commandment law, not the 613 laws of the Old Testament, not the oral law, not by the works of any law) but by faith in Jesus Christ.

Justification is imputation of righteousness, a righteousness not of our own.

“ Imputation of the righteousness of Christ comes through justifying faith, and is the justification for which Paul so earnestly contends. He says: "Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God....
Grace is unmerited favor, and the believer is justified without any merit of his own, without any claim to offer to God. He is justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, who stands in the courts of heaven as the sinner's substitute and surety. But while he is justified because of the merit of Christ, he is not free to work unrighteousness. Faith works by love and purifies the soul. Faith buds and blossoms and bears a harvest of precious fruit. 1 SM 397-398


What is Justification by faith. Justification is how God legally sets me right through a substitute, someone who takes my place – in the place of me – This is the reality of the perfection that is lived out in the life of Christ.
Christ fulfilled righteousness, His life meets all the requirements set out by God’s law. To save humanity one needs infinite righteousness. Christ in his person is infinite. We need a perfect obedience to the law – and Christ is the only One who gave that perfect obedience to the law. That perfect life must be placed on record, instead of, in the place of, our highly faulty righteousness.
The same with Christ’s death; the wages of sin is death, Christ took our sins and died in our place. The required righteousness was lived out by Christ while He was on this earth walking among men as a man. It is His righteousness, His perfection, all the prophecy has prophesied that there would be a kinsman Redeemer.
Redemption is in something more objective then ourselves, it is in the person Jesus Christ.

Too many are afraid of justification --
They feel they must offer God their righteousness in order to be accepted.

Their religious lives are a desperate struggle to produce fruit, in order to be saved.
But no fruit grows because they do not believe they are accepted by God and thus their connection with God is faint.

The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, is a precious thought. The enemy of God and man is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken. {GW 161.1}

It is a misleading to believe that the exaltation of justification by faith will lead people to deny the need to overcome sin, for it is by the exaltation of justification by faith in Christ and HIS righteousness that the sinner is brought to a true knowledge of their sinfulness and is finally given the power to break the binding chains of Satan.
The more we lift up Jesus, the more we talk of His beauty, the more the heart will bind itself in sympathy with Christ and His sufferings. The more we present His sacrifice and behold His matchless love, the more we will be changed into his likeness, and by uniting ourselves with Christ in gratitude for salvation, the heart learns loyalty to God, and fidelity to His commandments.
By the exaltation of Christ’s righteousness, we learn that even our offerings of obedience are totally insufficient to earn heaven and we confess our utter dependency on Christ’s saving righteousness.
In binding our hearts in sympathy with Him that loved us the believer runs away from sin, willing to rather die than to wound Christ afresh by knowingly committing sin. All this is the result of the exaltation of Christ’s substitutionary righteousness and it is by this emphases that the believer becomes sealed against sin and prepared for translation.

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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184614
07/19/17 10:19 AM
07/19/17 10:19 AM
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Garywk  Offline
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So now you're going to act as if the Oral law doesn't even exist?

It exists and the Jews followed it to a degree we have a hard time even comprehending. It is the only codified law that explains why the wall of separation exists between Jew and Gentile from the Jewish point of view.

Your position doesn't even begin to address the issue from that point. It just says the Gentiles hated the Jews because of God's moral law. To me that doesn't even make sense as it doesn't even begin to explain the hatred of the Jews for the Gentiles. In fact, God's moral law should have destroyed the hatred of the Jew for the Gentile.

Hatred for the law of God is a human race issue, not a Gentile issue. The Jews had just as much hatred of the law of God as the Gentiles did. We are all born in rebellion against it, and the Jewish religion had nothing in it that would dispel that natural aversion to God's law that exists in all of us.

So, no your theory doesn't hold water. God's law doesn't codify what Paul explicitly says: Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances.... Only one law does explain that, and that is the Oral law. It's the only law the Jews had that fits all aspects of what Paul said.

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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184617
07/20/17 02:58 AM
07/20/17 02:58 AM
dedication  Offline OP
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The text is speaking of justification.
The works of the law will justify no man.

People who seek to be justified by the law, usually start with God's law, and to be sure they keep God's law, will make hundreds of "oral laws", it's the natural result of seeking justification by the law. How ever, as the Jewish experience shows, seeking to be justified by the law makes one exclusive and critical.

From the lesson:

Quote:
The phrase “the works of the law” likely involves, therefore, all the requirements found in the commandments given by God through Moses, whether moral or ceremonial. Paul’s point is that no matter how hard one tries to follow and obey God’s law, our obedience never will be good enough for God to justify us, to have us declared righteous before God. That’s because His law requires absolute faithfulness in thought and action — not just some of the time but all of the time, and not just for some of His commandments but for all of them.

Although the phrase “works of the law” does not occur in the Old Testament and is not found in the New Testament outside of Paul, stunning confirmation of its meaning emerged in 1947 with the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of writings copied by a group of Jews, called Essenes, who lived at the time of Jesus. Although written in Hebrew, one of the scrolls contains this exact phrase. The scroll’s title is Miqsat Ma’as Ha-Torah, which can be translated, “Important Works of the Law.” The scroll describes a number of issues based on biblical law concerned with preventing holy things from being made impure, including several that marked the Jews out as separate from the Gentiles. At the end the author writes that if these “works of the law” are followed, “you will be reckoned righteous” before God. Unlike Paul, the author does not offer his reader righteousness on the basis of faith but on the basis of behavior.

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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184620
07/20/17 04:25 AM
07/20/17 04:25 AM
APL  Offline
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Originally Posted By: gary
19. Still the question remains open, “What is this yoke of bondage,” from which Christ came to free men, and which could not be borne by the ancestors of the Apostles? The answer is very simple, when we understand the laws and usage at the time of Christ, and the terror which they struck to the hearts of the people if they failed to observe them. When we understand the nature of some of these, and the penalties attached to them, then we can appreciate the saying of Christ and of the Apostles, and also understand that the freedom which Christ came to give was freedom from human fear and from human slavishness. All this was sin. [36] And what was true of the condition of people in Christ’s day at His first advent, is equally applicable at any other period of church history.


What is [36]?

John 8:33-34 They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how say you, You shall be made free? (34) Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, Whoever commits sin is the slave of sin.

There is your answer - sin is what causes bondage.

The discussion of the covenants is later in the quarter, the understanding lies in knowing the difference betweent the Old and the New Covenant.

At Sinai, Israel was offered the same covenant that Abraham received, but they rejected it and received what is called the Old Covenant which is based on the promises of the people to keep the law, obey and live. But they could not. They made all kinds of laws (little L) in order to try to keep the Law (big L), but how did it work for them? Salvation if found only under the New Covenant, based on better promises, the promises of God, who will renew the heart and bring it into harmony with the principles of the Law of God.


Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184627
07/21/17 03:09 PM
07/21/17 03:09 PM
dedication  Offline OP
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Tuesday: The Basis of Our Justification


“And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith” (Phil. 3:9, NKJV).

"It’s important to remember that faith itself doesn’t add to justification, as if faith were meritorious in and of itself. Faith is, instead, the means by which we take hold of Christ and His works in our behalf. We are not justified on the basis of our faith but on the basis of Christ’s faithfulness for us, which we claim for ourselves through faith." (Lesson quoted_


Quote:
It is ignorance of Him that makes men so uplifted in their own righteousness. When we contemplate His purity and excellence, we shall see our own weakness and poverty and defects as they really are. We shall see ourselves lost and hopeless, clad in garments of self-righteousness, like every other sinner. We shall see that if we are ever saved, it will not be through our own goodness, but through God's infinite grace. {COL 159.1}


Quote:
Only the covering which Christ Himself has provided can make us meet to appear in God's presence. This covering, the robe of His own righteousness, Christ will put upon every repenting, believing soul. "I counsel thee," He says, "to buy of Me . . . white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear." Revelation 3:18. {COL 311.3}
This robe, woven in the loom of heaven, has in it not one thread of human devising. Christ in His humanity wrought out a perfect character, and this character He offers to impart to us. "All our righteousness are as filthy rags." Isaiah 64:6. Everything that we of ourselves can do is defiled by sin. But the Son of God "was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." Sin is defined to be "the transgression of the law." 1 John 3:5, 4. But Christ was obedient to every requirement of the law. He said of Himself, "I delight to do Thy will, O My God; yea, Thy law is within My heart." Psalm 40:8.
When on earth, He said to His disciples, "I have kept My Father's commandments." John 15:10. By His perfect obedience He has made it possible for every human being to obey God's commandments. When we submit ourselves to Christ, the heart is united with His heart, the will is merged in His will, the mind becomes one with His mind, the thoughts are brought into captivity to Him; we live His life. This is what it means to be clothed with the garment of His righteousness. Then as the Lord looks upon us He sees, not the fig-leaf garment, not the nakedness and deformity of sin, but His own robe of righteousness, which is perfect obedience to the law of Jehovah. {COL 311.4}

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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184628
07/21/17 05:14 PM
07/21/17 05:14 PM
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But the doctrine is now largely taught that the gospel of Christ has made the law of God of none effect; that by "believing" we are released from the necessity of being doers of the word. But this is the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which Christ so unsparingly condemned. To the church of Ephesus He says, "I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars; and hast borne, and hast patience, and for My name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember then from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate." {BEcho, February 8, 1897 par. 6}

Those who are teaching
this doctrine today have much to say in regard to faith and the righteousness of Christ; but they pervert the truth, and make it serve the cause of error. They declare that we have only to believe on Jesus Christ, and that faith is all-sufficient: that the righteousness of Christ is to be the sinner's credentials; that this imputed righteousness fulfills the law for us, and that we are under no obligation to obey the law of God. This class claim that Christ came to save sinners, and that He has saved them. "I am saved," they will repeat over and over again. But are they saved while transgressing the law of Jehovah?--No; for the garments of Christ's righteousness are not a cloak for iniquity. Such teaching is a gross deception, and Christ becomes to these persons a stumbling block as He did to the Jews,--to the Jews, because they would not receive Him as their personal Saviour, to these professed believers in Christ, because they separate Christ and the law, and regard faith as a substitute for obedience. They separate the Father and the Son, the Saviour of the world. Virtually they teach, both by precept and example, that Christ, by His death, saves men in their transgressions. {BEcho, February 8, 1897 par. 7}

Justifaction is setting right, not some adjustment of our legal standing, or the erasure of items in a book, but a healing, a repairing of the ruin that sin has made.


Oh, that men might open their minds to know God as he is revealed in his Son! {ST, January 20, 1890}
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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184629
07/22/17 04:42 AM
07/22/17 04:42 AM
dedication  Offline OP
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Does EGW contradict herself? Does she contradict the Bible?
Is she now saying that we are "justified by the works of the law" and that Christ's righteous merits do not "adjust our legal standing" after all? We must earn our title to heaven?

No!

The clue here is that she is addressing a problem -- the problem is that some people say
" that we are under no obligation to obey the law of God." That we can now safely engage in sin. That is error.

Paul addresses the same thing --

He tells us about justification--

"Romans 3:24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus:
3:25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;
3:26 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
3:27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.
3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.

Galatians 2:16 Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.


Then he answers the same concern voiced above:

Romans 3:31 Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.
6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.


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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184630
07/22/17 05:11 AM
07/22/17 05:11 AM
dedication  Offline OP
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Wednesday: The Obedience of Faith

An intellectual assent to the gospel is not enough, for in that sense “even the demons believe.” True faith also affects the way a person lives. In Romans 1:5, Paul writes about the “obedience of faith.”


Notice in Jesus discussion with His disciples just before His death.

First He points out their "legal standing" -- "you are clean"
Perfect they were not but they had accepted Jesus,

Quote:
John 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.


Then He tells them how the fruit of obedience comes:
15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
15:5 I am the vine, ye [are] the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Back to Galatians we see Paul understands these words:


Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

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Re: Third Quarter 2017 The Gospel in Galatians [Re: dedication] #184638
07/24/17 05:18 AM
07/24/17 05:18 AM
dedication  Offline OP
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Lesson 5 July 22-28, 2017

Old Testament Faith

Portion of scripture in Galatians studied in our lesson this week.

Galatians Justification by Faith

3:1 O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?
3:2 This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?—
3 Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
4 Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?

5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
6 just as Abraham “believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
7 Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.
8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.”
9 So then those who are of faith are blessed with believing Abraham.

10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.”
11 But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for “the just shall live by faith.”
12 Yet the law is not of faith, but “the man who does them shall live by them.”

13 Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on tree”),
14 that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.


"foolish Galatians" "bewitched"
Strong words.
Paul literally says they are “mindless”, irrational. The Galatians were not thinking, they are "bewitched".

What were they doing to warrant such strong words from Paul?

The Galatians were departing from God by slipping into ritualistic religious practices; consequently, they were inevitably, although perhaps unconsciously, relapsing into idolatry.

It was folly to leave Christ and to start depending on ones own plan and set of rules for justification , to leave the Gospel for the law, and the doctrine of free justification by the righteousness of Christ, which brings so much solid peace and comfort with it, for the doctrines of ritualistic cleansing.

Some thoughts from Waggoner
Quote:

A Contrast: Under the Curse

Note the sharp contrast in verses 9 and 10. "Those who are men of faith are blessed," but "all who rely on works of the law are under a curse." Faith brings the blessing. Works bring the curse, or, rather, leave one under the curse. The curse is on all, for "he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." John 3:18. Faith removes the curse.

Who are under the curse? "all who rely on works of the law." Note that it does not say that those who do the law are under the curse, for that would be a contradiction of Revelation 22:14, KJV: "Blessed are they that do His commandments that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city." "Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord!" Psalm 119:1.

So, then, they who are of faith are keepers of the law; for they who are of faith are blessed, and those who do the commandments are blessed. By faith they do the commandments. Since the gospel is contrary to human nature, we become doers of the law not by doing but by believing. If we worked for righteousness, we would be exercising only our own sinful human nature, and so would get no nearer to righteousness, but farther from it. But by believing the "exceeding great and precious promises," we become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4, KJV), and then all our works are wrought in God. "The Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is of faith. But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. for they stumbled at that stumbling stone; as it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumbling stone and rock of offense: and whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed." Romans 9:30-33, KJV.

[Glad Tidings, E.J.Waggoner]


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