Paul's Letter to the Galatians
0 comments | Posted by Steven Layson on 29 Jul 2007 in From Steve's Study ::
Today we continue our series on Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches. One of the key issues that faced the church of the first century was how the Jewish and Gentile Christians would fit together. Should the Gentiles be forced to become Jews by taking on the Jewish law, or was this no longer necessary? As for the Jews themselves, how should they see their former way of life – did they need to continue in it?
Today’s passage (Gal 3:1-14) summarises pretty well the issue at hand. What is the place of the law in the Christian life? Should Christians be forced to obey the 10 commandments and all other parts of the law before they can be declared truly Christian? Is the Old Testament law a complete irrlevance to us? Is there perhaps some middle ground?
The Apostle Paul grew up strictly adhering to the law of Moses. He was a Pharisee, & therefore a strident advocate for obedience to every letter of the law.
Yet, when he met the risen Christ, everything changed. He realised, and writes clearly in all his letters, that we are no longer saved by obeying the law, but instead by putting our faith in the Lord Jesus.
This faith will obviously have an impact on the way we live our life, but obedience comes as an outworking of salvation, not the other way around.
Martin Luther (the reformer) illustrated it this way: “An ape can cleverly imitate the actions of humans. But he is not therefore a human. If he became a human, it would undoubtedly be not by virtue of the works by which he imitated man but by virtue of something else; namely, by an act of God. Then, having been made a human, he would perform the works of humans in proper fashion.”
We have become Christians by a miraculous act of God, who saved us through faith in his Son and transformed us by his Spirit. It is only now that we are changed that we can truly live lives that are pleasing to God, we would never have achieved this on our own.
Paul’s letter to the Galatians reminds us that we are only ever saved by faith in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus, & that we should never feel like we move beyond a total dependence on the mercy and forgiveness of God.
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