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Commentary on "Paul's Pastoral Appeal"
Day 3: Monday, November 21, 2011 - The Challenge to Become
The other day I briefly touched on this topic I'm going to build on it a little more and clarify things a bit. Becoming a Christian is to become an entirely new creation, when we are Born From Heaven we are transferred from the Domain of Darkness into the Kingdom of the Son. Our Spirit is brought back to life, God the Holy Spirit comes into us, lives in us and He seals us for Heaven and eternity. He gives us a brand new heart and writes the Law of the Spirit in our Hearts and Minds. We become an eternally living new creation in a dead and dying world. And as I've come to realize recently as a Christian returning to the Law is basically placing Him back on the cross and banging the nails back in myself. Returning to the Law after being saved by Grace is not a small issue it is a huge error.
Paul has turned to Christ, been saved by His Grace, and is resting in it. His works that he's now doing, were those that God had planned for him before the world ever existed. These works that one does after Salvation are not the empty dead works you did before Salvation to try and earn it, they are the evidence that you are a New Creation resting in God's grace.
The Galatians were in danger of returning to the Law for the comfort of having a check list of external directives, that gave them a measuring stick to show how they were either in good standing or not. To trust in something called Grace and the Law of the Spirit, things that cannot be seen just wasn't enough for those in the churches of Galatia. They wanted to return to the Law just in case this invisible Crace wasn't enough.
Paul was saying, that Grace is enough, don't mix it with the Law. When you do so you alienate yourself from Christ.
Paul is calling us to rest in God's Grace and the Salvation that was brought for us on the cross. And by returning to the Law, after being saved by Grace, we are denying the Grace and Salvation of Jesus death on the cross. By returning to the Law we are denying the only way provided for Salvation.
So Paul who is entirely resting on the Grace of Christ, turning his back completely on the Law which He used to keep “perfectly”, because the Law cannot save anyone only Grace can.
Paul is telling the Galatians that they need to be like him and rest in God's Grace.
Yet to make this point very clear, the Judaizers were wanting to lead the believers in Galatia back to the Law because the Judaizers were not under God's Grace but the Law. And those in the churches of Galatia were being drawn back to the Law because part of them wanted to follow a checklist because it showed them an outer certainty of being right with God. They could not fully trust in His Grace.
Since this was the case many could not trust in God's Grace alone like Paul was.
Through the book of Galatians he is imploring the believers in the churches of Galatia to not fall under the Law behind and trust Grace because the two cannot be mixed.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised November 19, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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