This week's Bible study will be the rest of Galatians chapter four

We Are All Born Into Freedom

[Galatians chapter 4, verses 21-31]

Continuing today with the book of Galatians, we're going to finish chapter four as we sort through this Biblical book of the early church at Galatia, which would be in modern-day Turkey. Taking up where we left off last week, let's continue starting at verse 21 as the apostle Paul continues to express his concern for the congregation there because of false teachings that were contrary to what Paul had taught them in person and in the Spirit. He begins by comparing false doctrines with slavery.

“Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in an ordinary way; but his son by a free woman was born as the result of a promise. These things may be taken figuratively, for the woman represents two covenants. One covenant is from Mt Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mt. Sinai in Arabia and corresponds with the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written, 'Be glad, oh barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband'.” (Gal. 4, verses 21-27, NIV)

As we noted in an earlier study, Paul is once again writing about early Christian converts who were formerly Jews who practiced adhering to the Law of Moses while also professing belief in Christ as the promised Messiah. They clung to both practices even though they were no longer required to do so, since the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ was the fulfillment of the Old Law, and this is why Paul was so upset with them. And so he goes on by comparing the origins of the Jews and Gentiles. Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation, had his son Isaac with his wife Sarah when he was 100 years old. Prior to this (in Genesis chapter 16) Abraham had a son with one of his slaves, whose name was Hagar. He agreed with his wife, since they had been unable to conceive and they had become elderly without any offspring, and so at age 86 Hagar bore Abraham a son, Ishmael. The way that Isaac had come into the world was by a promise of God made to Abram (who soon became Abraham) in Genesis chapter 15 when He said, “But Abram said, 'Oh sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?' And Abram said, 'You have given me no children, so a servant in my household will be my heir.' Then the Word of the Lord came to him: 'This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.' He took him outside and said, 'Look up at the heavens and count the stars – if indeed you can count them.' Then he said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Gen. 15, verses 2-6, NIV)

 

There are therefore two sets of descendants from Abraham; that of Hagar, who bore him Ishmael and that of Sarah, who bore him Isaac 14 years later. The descendants of Isaac became the inhabitants of Jerusalem during the times of King David and his son, King Solomon, from whom Christ was a direct descendant. That is what Paul was referring to when he wrote those words the way he did. “Slavery” refers to those who do not believe in Christ as the Son of God, but those who are free represent those who have put their complete faith and trust in Jesus and the Savior of the world. Those who refuse to believe in Christ are in slavery to sin, often without realizing it. This is something all of us can remain ever mindful of, and the way we can do this is to follow the writings of the apostle Paul when he wrote that we are to “continue to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling before the Lord”. This does not mean we should be scared to death of God – quite the contrary, in fact. It does mean that as we live our lives for Christ and place our complete faith in Him, we should be ever mindful of the awesome power and unimaginable glory that God personifies. To say the least, it is completely beyond man's understanding or comprehension. It is “the peace of Christ which surpasses all human understanding”, as Paul wrote in the book of Philippians, a book that we'll be getting to later on. For now, let's conclude today's study beginning at verse 28.

“Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born in the ordinary way persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same way now. But what does the Scripture say? 'Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son.' (Genesis 21:10 – PB) Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.” (Gal. 4, verses 29-31, NIV)

Paul hits a very important point right here when he compares Isaac, Abraham's first-born, to Christ, the second Adam and God's first-born. Also notice, the son of Abraham and the Son of God were both borne by “the power of the Spirit” since both were of a supernatural conception. That is the exact parallel Paul is using when he compares the two, and it is striking to me that the validity of his argument remains unchanged up until today. Since we are all descendants of Isaac, and since the descendants of Ishmael became the modern-day Arab nations, we are not borne into slavery but into freedom, a freedom whose only precondition be an uncompromising and full-fledged belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Lamb who takes away our sins. But when we are born again “of the water and the Spirit”, as Jesus taught Nicodemus in John chapter 3, the Holy Spirit then inhabits the hearts and minds of those who truly believe.

Interestingly enough, the descendants of Hagar the slave woman became the nations of Islam, and the descendants of Isaac became the modern day Israelis, as well as all Jewish people in other nations such as the US and Europe. But there is still more to this than merely tracing family trees. As you will recall from one of my previous studies, the difference between the Gospel of Christ and the Old Law is that the Old Law was for the Jewish nation as God's chosen people according to the promise He made to Abram that I already quoted. The new law, or New Testament as we now call it, extended the salvation of Christ to both Jews and Gentiles, which became the modern Christian church denominations we have today (personally I do not count myself among any denomination other than the followers of Christ, but that's another topic altogether). Salvation through Jesus Christ, which is essential for everlasting life even when our human bodies wear out, is now unconditionally available to everyone, or as Luke wrote in the book of Acts, “even all whom the Lord our God will call”. This is the best news of all, but there are two things we have to do first. The first is to believe in Jesus and accept Him into your heart as your personal God and Savior, because Jesus is not only the Son of God, but he is also the way, the truth, and the life. No one, Jesus said, can come to – or even approach – our heavenly Father unless they come to his Son first. Jesus then intercedes to the Father on our behalf. But there is one more thing we must do, and that is to obey His commandments. This means we are to love God with all our hearts and minds, with all our souls and all the strength we can muster. Degrees of human strength are unimportant here, but a willingness to serve plus a thankful and grateful heart are the most necessary ingredients. The last commandment we must obey – not counting the original ten commandments which are understood here – is to love our neighbor as ourselves. Not compared to ourselves, but instead as well as we treat our own selves, which is always as best we can. So it should be with others also. Being a steadfast student is very important here when it comes to following Christ. If we follow Christ's two greatest commands, that's how we know we are operating within God's will.

The 2 Witnesses - Secrets Revealed!

It's Time for Churches Everywhere to Wake Up and Smell the Coffee

Seven Hard Truths Pastors and Their Churches Need to Hear

By Rev. Paul J. Bern

There were once two parents with a little secret. They managed carefully to hold this secret down for several years. “Santa is coming!” their children sang. “It’s almost too good to believe!” With their mouths, the parents said, “How exciting!” But with their minds, they said, you’ve got the right idea: It is too good to believe. Then one day, the children came home with tear-streaks. They knew the truth. Lots of parents don’t tell their kids that Santa isn’t real. They don't tell their kids the hard truth because they're concerned: can their kid can handle the truth? You have undoubtedly noticed that our government teats us the same way about just about everything. Like kids that believe in Santa, people believe certain things about God because that’s what they’ve always been told – or because they want them to be true. You know, like, “God is good all the time”. But eventually, plodding through the mud of life, we discover the real truth: life is hard, and not everything is as it seems. Was God good when over 1,800 people drowned during Hurricane Katrina? Is He good when somebody's child dies? No, but God allows tragedy and sorrow to occur because it is in the most difficult times that God uses our misfortunes and our tragedies to strengthen us and to build our character. In the same way, at some point as a parent, you have to tell your kid the hard truth that Santa isn't real. And at some point, as pastors, we have to tell our congregations (or our readers in this case) the hard truths about God.

1) God isn't Santa

Dr. David Pendergrass articulated this hard truth well: God is not a cosmic Santa Claus. You don’t get put on a nice list for doing the “right” things and, in turn, get whatever your heart desires from God. Whenever we feel entitled to a reward, or to “what we deserve”, we cease to view God as the King of the universe and begin to view Him as our personal Santa.

2) You Won't Always Be Healed

There is so much good in praying for healing – healing for others and healing for ourselves. And while it's true that God is able to heal, he’s not obligated to. (Click to Tweet) Think about it: if God were obligated to heal and answer every prayer of healing, no one would ever die. The hard truth is that at some point, this life will end. But that’s not the end of the story. There is hope. Our great hope is not that we won't experience death, but that death is not the end of life – it's the beginning. (Click to Tweet)

3) You Won't Always Be "Blessed"

When someone says they’re “blessed,” they usually mean that they're doing well financially or their kids are on the honor roll. The implicit suggestion is that they're “blessed” because those things have happened. Conversely, if those things weren’t true, they would not be “blessed”, or at least not by human standards. Though there was a time that “blessing” and “wealth” and “good living” were tied together, I seem to recall this lesson from a Master Teacher about 2,000 years ago: “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account." (Matt. 5:11, NRSV) Or when this same teacher’s cousin asked for Him to save his life, and He didn’t. But instead Jesus sent word in Matthew 11: “Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.” The hard truth is that “blessing” is not about what we have accomplished, but what God is accomplishing in & through Jesus, who resides in the hearts and minds of all who truly believe. (Click to Tweet) We're truly blessed when we are used by God for the betterment of all.

4) Church Isn't About You

It’s so easy for churches to become like country clubs. Not in the stuffy, elitist sense. But in the “church is for us” sense. It's about what we want – our preferences, our comforts. It's our little world that we control, and we determine who gets in and who stays out. But Pastor Jordan Easley says the hard truth is that church isn’t about us and our 'holy huddles'. It's about seeking and healing the lost. The church should be a refugee camp for the lost and those who are hurting. That in itself is a whole lot of people! Church is supposed to be a place where hurting people are brought in to be made well, and then sent out to bring others who are hurting back in. We weren’t brought in to simply socialize.

5) Silence is OK

Christians like the celebration of Sunday’s resurrection. After all, it's the reason Christianity exists. That said, there is great value in the silent awkwardness of Saturday – you know, the time when Jesus was in the grave, his disciples were scared out of their minds, and they all thought they had wasted the last three years of their lives backing the wrong messiah. Sometimes God is going to be silent. It doesn’t mean that you aren’t “Christian enough” or that you are somehow “broken.” It means God is being silent. And the hard truth is that silence from God is OK.

6) Christianity Isn't About a Feeling – It's About Choices

How many times have you been asked, “How can I get that fire back? I just want that awesome feeling of being connected to God!” That question usually follows some awesome spiritual experience. This question isn’t all bad – it just misses the point. When we pursue and desire the “feeling” of being on fire for God, we begin to worship that, and not God. (Click to Tweet) The hard truth is that being a Christian isn’t about getting warm fuzzies when the band is rocking, or the pastor preaches an exciting sermon. It’s about daily choosing to pick up our cross, even when we don’t feel like it.

7) There is No 3-Step Formula to Guarantee a Certain Outcome

I get it: it’s easy to help people remember and understand things by formulas and clever mnemonics. They have their place. But we must be clear: there’s no guarantee to happiness, success, a great prayer life, or anything else. The Bible doesn’t offer “a good/efficient/successful/rich life”, but “new life.” And the hard truth is that that "new life" might look different than what we might expect. We might do everything the Scriptures say and have a business fail, be poor (which is no sin), struggle with depression, and/or not become the “next big thing.” What Scripture does say is God will not leave us as orphans (John 14:18). That whatever we have to go through in life, we won’t have to go through it alone. That’s the kind of guarantee we can count on.

In closing, parents make excuses for not telling their kids about Santa – and they feel good about it. But the hard truth is this: they are lying to their kids. ? And pastors, no matter what reasons they have for not telling their people these hard truths – the end is the same: we’re lying to them. They’re going to find out eventually. The question is this: Do you want to tell them the hard truth? Or do you want them to be blindsided by it?

This week's Bible study will be the first half of Galatians chapter four

Adoption by God While Finding the Correct Church

[Galatians chapter 4, verses 1-20]

When we left off last week in our study of the Book of Galatians, we were examining the apostle Paul's explanation of what it means to be a true Christian and a real disciple, and how we are literally adopted into the Family of God as his newly chosen people as a result of doing so. While it was the Israelites – the original Jewish nation freed from Egyptian captivity – that the Bible called God's chosen people in the Old Testament, that status is now available for everyone who believes unconditionally in the name, the unequaled power of eternal salvation, and the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, the son of the Living God. It's just like children being adopted. Once that legal process is complete, those kids have the same last name as their adopted parents, and they have the same rights under the law that their biological siblings. That's exactly what happens when we place our faith in Jesus Christ as the only way to eternal life. We become siblings with the Christ, and part of the family at the church we attend. Today as we begin chapter 4 of Galatians, we find Paul continuing with his commentary regarding this critical issue of Christianity and how it applies to each of us.

“What I am saying is that as long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole estate. He is subject to guardians and trustees until the time set by his father. So also, when we were children, we were in slavery under the basic principles of the world. But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out 'Abba, Father'. So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” (Gal. 4, verses 1-7, NIV)

When the apostle Paul wrote that “God sent his Son … born under law, to redeem those under law ...”, he is making a direct reference to what was then called the “old law”, or law of Moses – the first five books of the Old Testament. Jesus was born under the law because he was born to Jewish parents, and because He was the Jewish messiah sent to save Judaism, although He was rejected as such by his own people. Knowing this would happen, God's plan was simply to include all non-Jews along with the Jewish people – modern Israel – in His divine plan of salvation. Since all who believe inherit eternal salvation through Christ, we are heirs according to the original promise of God to Abraham, which was that his descendants would be as numerous as the grains of sand on a beach. When God made that promise to Abraham, He was talking about us, the Gentile multitudes who claim eternal salvation by the blood of Jesus. Let's now continue beginning at verse 8.

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God – or rather are known by Him – how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are celebrating special days and months and seasons and years! I fear for you, that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you. I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the Gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself. What has happened to all your joy? I can testify that, if you could have done so, you would have torn out your eyes and given them to me. Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?” (Gal. 4, verses 8-16, NIV)

There is no doubt in my mind that as Paul was writing these words, he was referring once again to all the false teachings and twisted doctrines that he wrote about in the first two chapters of Galatians. He is returning to his original contention that the Galatians were “foolish” by believing many of these teachings, implying that the false doctrines he mentioned must have been really far-fetched and sensational in nature, presumably to attract more followers. These kinds of churches are still around today, except that the modern terminology we use to describe them is “cults”. That single word sums up what those heretic churches of Paul's day must have been just as it sums up what cult churches are today. My advice to you all is that if you ever find yourself in a church that looks more and more like a cult each time you visit, get yourself out of there and go find a church where the Holy Spirit is present. Don't worry about how you will know that, trust me, you just will. It is vitally important to remember here that when one is undergoing a Spiritual change such as this one should pray directly to Jesus about making the correct church selection. Through prayer, the Spirit of Christ will lead us to the church that is right for us, and in so doing steer us away from false churches with bogus doctrines, and there are plenty out there. Let's now conclude today's study beginning at verse 17.

“Those people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them. It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you!” (Gal. 4, verses 17-20, NIV)

As it was back then, so things continue in much the same way today. Cult churches are out to win you over, but for all the wrong reasons. I'm not going to mention any names here, but some of them are well-known “Christian” denominations. Until you meet some of the members, that is, which is when you will discover that there isn't a damn thing Christian about any of them. Jesus defined the two greatest commandments as being, “to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul, and all your strength”, and to “love your neighbor as yourself” (see Matt. 22: 34-39). Don't forget it was the apostle John, the half-brother of Jesus, who wrote, “This new commandment I give you, that you are to love one another”. That is one of the best ways to tell if you are in a cult or not. Are they loving, tolerant, and compassionate? Are they kind and gentle, or rough and disrespectful? Do they seem arrogant and opinionated? How do they treat other people, particularly those who are considerably different from them? That is how you tell – by the quantity and the quality of their love for other people.

It is up to us to take the responsibility of finding a good church, which can often consist of several tries before the right church for that person or family is found. Under no circumstances should we ever let this deter us from finding the right church that teaches and preaches the Truth of Christ. We are morally bound by our faith in Jesus Christ to be on the alert against false teachings and strange doctrines. The best way to accomplish this is to read our Bible and study the Word, preferably on a daily basis whenever possible. We have been given the power by Almighty God through Jesus Christ his Son to discern pure teaching from impure, and sound doctrine from that which is unsound. If anyone is unsure how to tap into and utilize this Spiritual power, they should ask God for it. Trust me, He will give it to you as soon as you are ready for it (and, if there is a delay in receiving it, that's why). Jesus said, “Seek, and you will find, ask and you shall receive, knock and the door will be opened”. (Matt. 7: 7-8) Believe me, it works like a charm every time I apply it. Do not be concerned if you do not receive what you ask for right away. It doesn't always work like that, but God's timing is always perfect. I know this to be true because this has been the case in the past for me, and I have no doubt that His timing will soon be perfect once again no matter what happens. If it can work that way for me, it surely can for you was well.

These rigged elections are the last straw. Should we go on strike?

Should The American People Go On Strike?

By Rev. Paul J. Bern

Osama bin Laden has been dead for about 4 years by now, maybe more. Meanwhile, ever greater numbers of our senior citizens are living into their 100's. America evidently is having an obesity epidemic, while 50,000 children ages 5 and under die from starvation globally each year. Imagine your child, grandchild, niece or nephew, and then multiply that by 50,000, and you get an idea of the scope of the problem. There's life and death, positive and negative, good and bad in all kinds of folks, circumstances and situations. One priest saves lepers, another abuses altar boys; one Nazi ran the ovens at Auschwitz while another hid the Jews, saving them from certain death (remember a movie called “Schindler's List”?). And when we marvel at those contradictions we have a ready explanation. There's good and bad everywhere, in all races, nations, and societies. We have yet to bridge our differences in race or culture or nationality or faith, but at least we can all agree on that simple truth while we continue to work on all the others. 

 

We live in a 'George Jetson'-like time of instant communication, jumbo jets, digital TV and all that goes with it, social media and even (thank God!) this blog, where I can pass on to everyone what God has put on my mind and heart in the hopes of helping someone, somewhere, somehow. Nations are beginning to blur; races, ethnicities and various nationalities are mixing, our globe has shrunk to an overheated marble, yet the world seems more fractured than ever. So much divides us. What unites us? Religion? It could, but having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ unites us all under his holy banner, meaning that Jesus, not religion, is the answer for me. The maximum number of plausible Gods is one (all you atheists may simply skip this sentence) as far as I'm concerned. Yet we've been waging wars for millennium over what to call Him and whether he wants his picture shown or not. But while religions can't agree on God, they're remarkably close when it comes to people. There is near universal agreement on what makes a good person.

Be kind to people, treat your neighbors well, be hospitable to strangers, love one another, live honestly, and a dozen other virtues seem to comprise some universal truth about humanity. And all societies agree on them. It's as plain as daytime in the Bible. Humankind has been speaking those words since the first philosopher carved cuneiform into clay. We must have an instinctive sense of goodness instilled into us, because we are not born that way. We also agree on what makes a bad person: The murderer, the rapist, the traitor, the manipulator, the cheat, the bully, the taker, the liar, the thief. “Do for others what you would like them to do for you. This is a summary of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (Matt. 6:12 NLT) We know who we are. We don't like to hurt people. We try not to cheat, lie and steal and we're ashamed of ourselves when life drives us to those ends because we have a conscience. We believe in peace on earth and goodwill towards men. And for ten thousand years we've let the bad people push us around and tell us what to do and to whom to do it. We've let them because they were bad enough to make us and we were too soft to stop them until they did terrible damage – until they simply had to be stopped, usually involuntarily.

Bad people are very hard to ignore. You can't avoid a bad person if he or she happens to be your boss at work, for example. And that happens a lot, because bad people seem disproportionately to occupy corner offices. They're the bosses, and they know how to play the cold-hearted, cynical game of office politics. That can be rough on you if you work with them (been there, done that). But bad people also know how to play the high-stakes game of national politics, and that's rough on the entire population. Bad people hate, and they convince ordinary good people to hate the same things. Oh sure, there are always a few saints who rise above the evil that bad people do, and they usually die for it. We know about them posthumously from the Bible, starting with Jesus himself, and then with 11 of the 12 apostles, followed by the stoning of Steven in Acts chapters 6-7, plus part of chapter 8.

But those weren't good people, they were great people, and we can't count on them all the time because they don't come along every day. But there are always plain old good people around, because there's good and bad in all kinds. And so this is a call to arms for good people everywhere! We have to stop following the bad people immediately. Without us, bad people have little power, they're merely annoying. Good people everywhere, I'm speaking to you even as you read this. We need to go on strike against the bad people! Let's tell the bullies and haters to leave us alone, because we don't want to have to kill any more of them. After all, that's what it takes to stop one of them. Let's laugh at their rigged economy and crooked government, reject their poisoning our environment and pumping up our kids with drugs they mostly don't need, and refuse to be provoked by their aggression. Let's tell them we won't play their deadly games anymore; let's tell them it's over! We're not sending our sons and daughters off to fight their wars anymore. We're not going to tolerate any more FBI and CIA-instigated false flag terror attacks in our cities, such as what happened in Orlando last week (it turns out at least 4 or 5 of the Orlando shooting victims, up to as many as 10 or 12, were actually shot outside the club while the shooter was still inside. Hmmm...). Don't forget, these are agent provocateurs for the same people that assassinated the Kennedy brothers and Rev. Dr. King. These are the same people who've been slowly poisoning us and our kids by fluoridating our nation's water supply for the last 75 years. If the Dark Side, Satan and his forces of evil, will do this to our nation's finest, what do you think they would do to you if you gave them the chance? Or if they took it upon themselves to come after you or your assets, such as a law enforcement or IRS operation? The average American stands a better than even chance of being killed by the police in such situations!

Maybe what we should do is give all these gun-toting, war-mongering (war mongrels?) maniacal psychopaths a large island or land mass somewhere so they can fight it out to their evil hearts' content. Eventually they will all kill each other off, and die enjoying doing so. Let's see, I'm thinking Siberia, Antarctica or maybe Greenland if it's not too small. But you know, it would apply even there, that pet theory of mine, in this hypothetical land of the damned. Some evil SOB would do something nice for some other evil SOB, probably without even realizing it. Because there's good and bad in all kinds of people. But when God made us he gave us all a free will – freedom to choose our own destinies. Why do I choose God when others don't? Why do I place my complete faith and trust in Jesus Christ? Because, although I could just go my own way and take my own chances, although I could call my own shots and make my own way, I choose Christ. I'd rather believe in Jesus and take a chance on being wrong about it, then I would not believe and take a chance on being wrong about that. Because if I or any of us is wrong about that, if we refuse to believe only to discover our mistake later, there is redemption and salvation in the former choice, but neither in the latter. Please devote your week to thinking carefully about this ultimate choice we must make. Where we spend eternity after our physical lives end will surely depend upon it.

Hillary Clinton's election fraud finally exposed. California stolen from...

Magog Rising

This week's Bible study will be the 2nd half of Galatians chapter three

We Are All the Sons and Daughters of God

[Galatians chapter 3, verses 15-29]

Last week we went over the first half of Galatians chapter three, where the apostle Paul expounded on the fact that it is good to be lawful – or religious, in this context – but it is far better to be faithful because faithfulness allows us to follow Christ, who is the summation of the New Law. Today as we study the second half of Galatians Three, we find Paul continuing his explanation of the Christian concept of faithfulness, and why it is pivotal to modern – or progressive, as I call it – Christian life as a way of living. To simply adhere to any certain set of beliefs, regardless of their spiritual origin, is no longer enough as we continue living in the last days before the coming of the Antichrist. Faith is something to be lived and actively experienced, rather than being an abstract set of beliefs and rituals. Paul continues this same train of thought beginning at verse 15.

“Brothers, let me take an example from everyday life. Just as no one can set aside or add to a human covenant that has been duly established, so it is in this case. The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. The Scripture does not say, 'and to seeds', meaning many people, but, 'and to your seed', meaning one person, who is Christ. What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in His grace gave it to Abraham as a promise. What, then, is the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed through whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one.” (Gal. 3, verses 15-20, NIV)

Remember last week when we discussed the fact that Abraham was “justified by faith”? We now see the apostle Paul continuing that same explanation in the above passage of scripture. Moses, who was a descendant of Abraham, was justified by faith just the same as Abraham. So likewise Jesus Christ, who is descended from them both and whose lineage is traced directly to King David in the first chapter of Matthew's gospel was the fulfillment of that original promise (see Matthew 5:17). If our inheritance in Christ is dependent on the law, then the promise God made to Abraham becomes something extra that is unnecessary or redundant. Clearly this is not the case at all, since God is truth, and since Jesus was the embodiment of that Truth. The original purpose of the law was to be offering sacrifices for the sins of mankind by the shed blood of animal sacrifices. But once Christ had come and shed His blood, there was no longer any need for the sacrifices of old. Jesus is the new living sacrifice for all of us, having fulfilled the Law of Moses in its entirety by His death and resurrection. Like Abraham, we too are all justified by our faith in Christ, and when He returns, we too shall rise again to meet Him. Let's continue now:

“Is the law, therefore, opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law. But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe. Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” (Gal. 3, verses 21-25, NIV)

In these few verses Paul gives a simple explanation – but from a Jewish viewpoint since Paul was born a Jew – for why the Old Law was replaced by Christ himself. We cannot be justified by faith as Paul wrote earlier unless it is through Christ. The best news for all concerned is that under the new law, the justification by faith of Abraham and Moses that was formerly reserved for Israel is now available to all humankind. Paul adds to what he is saying beginning at verse 26.

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Gal. 3, verses 26-29, NIV)

The conclusion of Paul's explanation here is excellent news for all those who believe in Jesus as the Son of God. “Baptized into Christ” is a referral to what the apostle Paul wrote earlier in chapter three regarding the necessity of baptism. Jesus said in the Gospel of John (chapter 3, verses 3-8) that we are to be born again both of the water (water baptism) and of the Spirit (baptism of the Holy Spirit). Therefore, Paul writes, there is no longer any distinction between Jew and Gentile. All people are God's chosen people, meaning it is no longer an exclusively Jewish domain as it was in the Old Testament. Salvation through Jesus Christ is now available to everyone free of charge! Hallelujah!!!

The other thing that strikes me here is the mention of no gender in the eyes of God. We see each other as being either male or female, but that's not how God sees us. Based on what Paul wrote, gender will not exist in the eternal life to come. But we won't need to reproduce since we will be immortal anyway. Moreover, we have become descendants of Abraham by our adoption into God's family, and we are therefore as Jewish as Abraham is as far as God is concerned. In addition, since we are clothed with Christ who walked the earth as a Jewish man, that is all the proof necessary for us to call ourselves adopted into the Family of God. Because of this, eternal life is extended to all those who believe in Jesus. When our lives are over and done with on this earth, we shall live on in the Spirit with Him forever in heaven, a time of celebration without end. And that will be the best reward of all!

What the Bible says about citizens who are robbed of their representation and political clout

The Day Democracy Died

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

It has come to my attention lately that this summer's presidential conventions are likely to turn into an all-out brawl. On the Republican side you have Donald Trump's supporters vs the “anybody but Trump” brigade, while on the Democrat side we find Hillary Clinton's supporters lined up against those who are for Bernie Sanders. Caught in the middle are the American people, who really have no voice at all anymore unless we step up collectively and change this for ourselves. Take a look around you and you will find no one standing in line behind any of us eagerly waiting to do us a favor. Life isn't like that, so just forget about it. If we want change, and the American people most definitely do, we're going to have to put it in play ourselves. Let the American people take the field, then, and let us play this government for a bunch of suckers just like they did us! Give them a taste of their own medicine and see how they like that!

But the ugly truth of the matter is that the US electoral system has been exposed once again as being rigged to the point of being completely fraudulent. The discrepancies between the final vote tabulation and the exit polls are huge, with several being in excess of 10%. The New York primary was a classic example, where Bernie Sanders won 50 out of the 62 counties that are in New York state, while Hillary won the other 12. And yet Hillary Clinton was declared the winner by 6 percentage points? This is just one example, but you get the idea (what happened in California almost a week ago is another good example). Dr. Ron Paul says the American electoral system is rigged to keep “independent thinkers” from succeeding. “I see elections as so much of a charade,” the former Texas congressman said during an April 11 appearance on RT America’s “The Fishtank.” “So much deceit goes on. I’ve worked on the assumption for many, many decades, that whether there’s a Republican or a Democrat president, the people who want to keep the status quo seems to have their finger in the pot and can control things,” he said in the interview. “They just get so nervous, though, if they have an independent thinker out there — whether it’s Sanders, or Trump or Ron Paul, they’re going to be very desperate to try to change things.” He suggested that the 2016 election is “a lot more entertainment than anything else” because none of the candidates “have answers” to modern political problems. Even so, Paul interprets the success of these outsider candidates as a sign that “more people are discovering that the system is all rigged and voting is just pacification for the voters and it really doesn’t count. I don’t think there’s an easy way out for the establishment or the parties,” he noted, explaining that Democrats and Republicans would both rather risk “further alienation of the people” than allow a candidate to succeed who could shake up the system. “I was upset about it but didn’t want to waste too much energy being angry because this is the way the system works,” he said. “It’s a rotten system.”

People have to understand that the United States is NOT a democracy. It never has been, and it never will be unless we change it ourselves. The United States is also not the constitutional republic it was originally founded as either, and hasn’t been since America became a corporation that serves an oligarchy with the Act of 1871. An oligarchy is defined as a form of government in which power resides in the hands of a small number of elites within a society. The United States of America is a corporation and an oligarchy that serves a political system that lacks anything resembling true legitimacy. The political system it serves is a handful of elite families and institutions using crony politicians such as Hillary Clinton to do their bidding. In what is known as the “Act of 1871,” the Forty-First Congress of the United States officially sold out our nation to the Illuminati (or the “global bankers” if the term global banker suits you better), because the U.S. had reached unsustainable levels of debt and something had to be done (notice a pattern?). The following is from the post titled, Proof: US Congressional Record Says US is Actually a British Crown Colony Run By NWO: “The 'Act of 1871' essentially destroyed our republic, and replaced it with the Corporation of the United States. Something not taught in any history books, and certainly not taught by common core, is that the original Constitution drafted by the Founding Fathers, was written in this manner: “The Constitution for the united states of America.” The Act of 1871 altered that, and the newer version reads: “THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.”” The 1871 version is the Constitution’s “corporate replacement,” and what might seem to layman like no more than mere semantics is actually a far, far bigger deal.

Save the “Conspiracy” nonsense for another time. The Act of 1871 can be downloaded and read for yourself. What Congress did by passing the Act of 1871 was create an entirely new document, a constitution for the government of the District of Columbia, an incorporated government. This newly altered Constitution was not intended to benefit the Republic. It benefits only the corporation of the United States of America and operates entirely outside the original Constitution. Instead of having absolute and unalienable rights guaranteed under the original Constitution, “we the people” now have “relative” rights or privileges. One example is the Sovereign’s right to travel, which has now been transformed (under corporate government policy) into a “privilege” that requires citizens to be licensed. By passing the Act of 1871, Congress committed TREASON against the American people who were Sovereign under the grants and decrees of the Declaration of Independence and the original Constitution. Not only that, but the Bible has some scripture that fits this very closely, such as Proverbs chapter 14, verse 31: “He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for their Maker, but whoever is kind to the needy honors God.” Deuteronomy 15: 4 says “there should be no poor people among you.....”, and again in Isaiah 61: 1 it reads, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners”. Who among us is “the poor and the needy”? Just about everybody these days. Are we being oppressed? Certainly, because we no longer have any say in our government, and because our Constitutionally guaranteed freedoms are being taken away!

This is a dangerous trend, and it must be reversed if what is left of our country is going to be preserved. Of course, election irregularities are nothing new in America. There was the Bush/Gore debacle of 2,000, which exposed the US electoral system as being like something out of the 1950's. But these same people are the ones who brought us endless wars in the 21^st century, Waco Texas in 1993, Iran Contra from the 1980's, the Watergate break-ins of the 1970's, and the assassinations of the Kennedy brothers and Rev. Dr. King from the 1960's. So, you see, we will never know who really won the presidential primaries, and it may not matter anyway. Today's American political candidates are selected, not elected. The whole electoral, economic and political systems are rigged against us in favor of the top 1%, or maybe the top .01%. At any rate, it's looking more and more like “we the people” will have to stop this by force. As I see it, we have run out of options. After all, was it not Jesus himself who said, “I have come not to bring peace, but a sword.” Got yours?

Bible study this week will be the first half of Galatians chapter three

Which Is Better, Being Lawful Or Being Faithful?

[Galatians chapter 3, verses 1-14]

As we begin this week's study we'll be looking at the first half of Galatians chapter three. In it the apostle Paul continues to take the church at Galatia to task because of certain heretical teachings that were going on at the time. Newly converted Gentile Christians were intermingling with newly converted Jews who embraced Christ as the Jewish messiah. Evidently the non-Jews were being instructed by unnamed Jewish converts to practice and live their new faith while also adopting the Jewish customs of their new brethren in Christ Jesus. Paul continues with his blistering criticism of this practice as we begin at verse one.

“You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? Have you suffered so much for nothing – if it really was for nothing? Does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you because you observe the law, or because you believe what you heard? Consider Abraham: 'He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness'. [Genesis 15:6] Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the Gospel in advance of Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you'. [Genesis 12:3] So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.” (Gal. 3, verses 1-9, NIV)

Here we see Paul summing up his point in one sentence when he wrote, “Did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard?” Since the observation of the Law of Moses – the first five books of the Old Testament – was fulfilled by the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ, Paul is simply stating that to continue observing the Old Law and its customs is both pointless and unnecessary. The crucifixion, death and resurrection of Christ is the embodiment of the new law, replacing the old. After spending all the time converting them and teaching them and founding a church, Paul is clearly exasperated with the church at Galatia because they had strayed from what he taught them was the Spiritual foundation of that church, none other than Jesus himself. It is not possible to obtain salvation through Christ by our good works alone, although it is good that we all do so whenever and wherever we can. We can do so only two ways according to Scripture; the first is by maintaining a totally committed faith in Christ and his Salvation, and the second is by grace that God bestows upon us through his Son. Grace is defined as unmerited favor, the spiritual equivalent of a free pass. Even though none of us deserves it due to our sins, grace is given to us freely as a token of God's love for us when we accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior. So if you ever need evidence that God really does love you, just think about His grace as you bask in its warm light. If you are already a believer, just focus on that in your mind. And if you aren't yet a believer, now would be a good time to become one. Simply ask Jesus to come and live inside your heart, and to stay there forever.

The other thing the apostle Paul explains (or more likely reiterated) to the church at Galatia is the concept of unity between Jew and Gentile when he wrote, “Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith”... Paul is clearly citing this as another reason to put away the traditions of old and replacing them with the then-new concept of Jesus Christ as the Jewish and Gentile messiah and as the Son of God. If any of you read my studies on the book of Romans, Paul touched on that same topic when he wrote, “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the spirit of Son-ship. And by him we cry, 'Abba, Father'. The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs – heirs with God and co-heirs with Christ ...” (Romans 8: 15-17) So you see, Paul was literally telling the Galatian congregation that they were already adopted into the family of God, and that there was nothing extra or special that they needed to do to join the family. Moreover, since our adoption into God's eternal family is through Jesus Christ, whose lineage can be traced all the way back to God, that makes us all Jewish by adoption just as it says in Romans. I don't know about you, but I find the prospect of being an adopted Jew quite appealing. If that is the genealogy of my Lord and Savior, then that is good enough for me. Let's continue now and conclude today's study beginning at verse ten.

“All who rely on observing the Law are under a curse, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.' [Deut. 27:26] Clearly no one is justified before God by the Law, because 'the righteous will live by faith'. [Habakkuk 2:4] The Law is not based on faith; on the contrary, 'The man who does these things will live by them'. [Lev. 18:5] Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.' [Deut. 21:23] He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promise of the Spirit. (Galatians 3, verses 10-14, NIV)

The apostle Paul repeatedly quotes the Old Testament – or more accurately the Law of Moses, which was still very much the religious tradition of that time in that part of the world – in order to finish making his point. Paul's literacy was the exception rather than the rule in those days, and he uses his educational level to his advantage right here. Clearly, Paul writes, “ … no one is justified before God by the Law, because 'the righteous will live by faith'...”. This is the crux of the matter, which is that no one can enter into God's kingdom – or the third heaven, as Paul called it – based on their good deeds and legalistic achievements. The only way to salvation is through our uncompromising and undiluted faith in the saving power of the blood of Christ. There is no other way by which any of us may enter heaven, and there are no exceptions allowed based on the teachings of Christ. If anyone tries to tell you any different, get away from those people and those churches because they are teaching a false doctrine, and they will be held accountable. But it is the truth, Jesus said, that will make you free, and anyone who is free in Him is truly and irrevocably free. And that's the best news of all.

If you can't get any justice of your own, go and manufacture some instead!

Social and Economic Justice and Progressive Christianity

by Rev. Paul J. Bern

For this week's message, I'm going to be doing a bit of a departure from my usual Jesus-following, peace-loving old hippie stuff that I usually write. It's not that I'm losing my faith or deviating from it, it's just that there's something going on in my life that needs to be shared because this information is potentially beneficial to all who read this. First I wish to give credit where credit is due, and that is to my new friend Ms. Monica Ball, otherwise known as “Real Talk With Monica” on the radio, as well as You Tube and Facebook (@Monica_RealTalk). After meeting her at Atlanta's Piedmont Park while I was promoting my books, it was she who suggested that I write about some things I am currently going through during a phone conversation a few days later. What in the world am I talking about here? Debt!! No, I'm not going to try and sell you a book about how to invest in real estate or so-called “precious metals” (as far as I'm concerned, the only truly precious thing that exists is the person and the deity of Jesus Christ). What I am going to write about are two things: How to sue your creditors, and how to legally replace a revoked drivers license. I'd better start at the beginning. I'm not trying to elicit sympathy from anyone, but I was recently the victim of an elaborate on-line check scheme that caused my one lone bank account to get emptied out. Poof, all my money was gone, end of story. In a way, this is an embarrassing thing to have to write about, but write I must so that no other nonprofits or individuals get victimized by this scheme.

It all started with what looked like a donation, the first I'd had in a long time. I can't say how much it was, but the check was over $1,000.00. It was a cashier's check drawn on a bank in Oklahoma. Before I deposited it, I verified it was OK, so everything seemed fine. Ordinarily I would have jumped in my car and scooted on down to the bank to deposit the check. But in my case I took the bus instead because I'm temporarily prevented from holding a drivers license, but through no fault of my own. I got a speeding ticket in Murphy, North Carolina back around 1994-95. I don't remember exactly when but it was in the fall. I paid off the ticket a couple of weeks later and moved on. OK, now let's fast forward to November 2008 – my Georgia driver's license is expiring. So I dutifully go and wait in line to renew it only to find out my license is suspended. The reason I was given was – you guessed it – my old traffic ticket in North Carolina. Their computer showed the ticket was unpaid even though I had paid it off well over 20 years ago. Now I have law enforcement from both North Carolina and Georgia telling me it will cost me $550.00 altogether to get my license back. Unfortunately for me, I'm a disabled retiree, and my income is woefully insufficient to be able to pay these legalized extortionists. My drivers license is now revoked as a result, it's been that way for nearly 8 years, and for now there doesn't seem to be much I can do about it. So, I don't sweat about it, and this is my life as it currently is. But, as the apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament of the Bible, “When I am the weakest, then God becomes that much stronger” (paraphrased). Now, hold that thought for a minute while I finish my short story about the D-word, debt.

I was going through a dry spell financially, so I welcomed that check. I went to the ATM at the downtown branch of the credit union I belong to the following morning and deposited the check. That was on a Saturday. The following Monday afternoon I was sitting at my computer working. I get a frantic email from the lady who sent the donation the previous Friday. She has been in a real bad auto accident, and her car is totaled. She has been injured, she wrote, but she will probably be OK “eventually”. But in the meantime, her purse with all her money and credit cards are in her wrecked car, and so is her medical insurance card. She wants to know if I can send her some of the money she donated back to her so she can pay a down payment on her hospital bill. I thought about it for a minute or so, and it seemed to be a reasonable request at the time, so I agreed, and I wired her the amount she asked for. This turned out to be a major mistake on my part. As you have guessed by now, the check eventually bounced, a process that took an entire week.

 

So the next thing I know, I'm on my way to a Fulton County government building here in Atlanta to get a copy of the police report, which I then brought to one of the branch managers at my credit union at that time in the hopes of recovering the rest of the money that was in my account. Instead, they want me to repay the money, but I explained that I was retired and on disability and so I had no way to repay the money. Once I saw that the credit union was going to come after me for the money, I opened another account at a different credit union and changed my direct deposit info. When it came time for my disability check to arrive early the following month, my old credit union withheld it. This, of course, left me with no money to pay rent or to buy groceries and medicine, an impossible situation if ever there was one. I would like to publicly thank the church where I attend and where I have the privilege of playing keyboards every Sunday, none other than the Prayer of Faith Church of God in Christ in West Side Atlanta for their invaluable assistance during this trying period in my life.

What ultimately happened within days is I ended up being forced to take out a loan from this same credit union so I could have money to live on. Even then, they still withheld my disability check and I only got a portion of the remaining balance in question. So I ended up being forced – coerced, actually – to take out a loan while having over half of the amount withheld for what amounted to fees and penalties. So, I am suing them this coming week. The paperwork is almost ready, all I've got to do is grab a bus downtown (I live about 1.5 miles from the Atlanta Falcons new stadium, so it's a short ride) and go file the papers at the court house. You know, you can sue your creditors, it's perfectly legal. Moreover, contrary to what these lawyers who advertise on TV are telling people, filing bankruptcy is NOT the only way out of a financially impossible situation. Find something in the loan agreements that is disputable. In my case, since I'm a disabled person, I can and will sue for discrimination as well as for exploitation of the disabled. In this case I am suing my former credit union, who capitalized on the fact that I was a crime victim without the resources to defend myself, and who pilfered my disability check without any due process whatsoever. Not only that, but I'm acting as my own attorney because:

[1] I can't afford to hire an attorney, and

[2] I've done this before. I once sued Pay-pay in small claims court and won a settlement while acting as my own attorney. It's not that difficult to do if you do your homework first.

Got a student loan you can't repay? Sue the financial institution who made the loan and charge them with “predatory lending”. Ditto for any other loans you may have, including your mortgage, and that's just one example. You can keep your creditors tied up in court for months, even longer, so you can give yourself some financial breathing room. Don't worry about acting as your own attorney, your suit in Small Claims Court will most likely never go to trial anyway. It will be settled out of court, or through an arbitration process that is pretty simple and straightforward. Oh, and what about my drivers license? I'm having my name legally changed, and then I am going to get a new drivers license in that name (although I recommend getting a passport in that new name. I already looked it up, and it's perfectly legal in all 50 states so long as you stop using your old name permanently. (Disclaimer: I strongly advise all who read this to do this legally to avoid any unwanted contact with law enforcement. Check your local laws before proceeding).

Social and economic injustice arises when the governmental and economic systems become rigged against the people and in favor of the wealthiest Americans, which has become the case today. I have openly and passionately stood against social and economic injustice in all its forms for the entire five years that I have been a Web minister and preacher. One of the ways I can do so is to write about different ways one can legally circumvent injustice in order to obtain justice. By posting this, I hope I helped somebody somewhere.

Bible study this week will be the 2nd half of Galatians chapter two

Divisions and Interpretations in the Early Church

[Galatians 2, verses 11-21]

Today we will be finishing up the second half of chapter two of the Book of Galatians. As we open our study, we find the apostle Paul continuing his letter to the church at Galatia. As we begin at verse 11, we find Paul moving on to another related subject as he continues writing.

“When Peter came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy even Barnabas was led astray. When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in front of them all, 'You are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it, then, that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs?' We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by our faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one would be justified.” (Galatians 2, verses 11-16, NIV)

At first glance, it appears the apostle Paul is writing about some long-forgotten disagreement between Jewish and non-Jewish believers, but that is not the case. As I pointed out in a previous study of Second Corinthians, there has been a longstanding Jewish custom of staying among themselves and being separate from the rest of the Christian world. This is yet another example of that very thing, with Paul being on one side of the argument and Peter on the other. Paul, after he was converted on the road to Damascus in Acts chapter nine, turned away from the Jewish customs, teachings and traditions of his fathers. Peter, the first apostle called by Jesus, was also a Jewish man, but one who walked and talked with Christ. Evidently, he chose to retain and honor at least some of his Jewish traditions for whatever reason he had. I strongly believe that this was the main substance of their argument.

Just as evidently, Paul's followers and supporters followed in his footsteps and took Paul's teachings to heart just as Peter's followers undoubtedly followed Peter. This is another documented case of schisms and offshoots within the early Church that grew into the wide variety of Christian denominations as we know them today (at last check, there are over 4000 denominations in the United States alone). Was either one right or wrong? Actually, neither as far as God is concerned. Man-made arguments, theories, postulations, deductions and conclusions are mere child's play to Almighty God. But I think the apostle Paul made his point very well when he wrote, “We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners' know that a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ”. Whether one is Jewish or not – and by extension any race, religion or nationality – whether one is Protestant or Catholic, Christian or Muslim, black, white or whatever, it's all completely besides the point! It's an intellectual and emotional trap from which there is no escape, like an enigma wrapped in an unsolvable riddle. Strip it all away and the only thing left underneath the surface is Jesus Christ, the Savior himself. He was, and still is and always will be, the basis for all things! He is, always has been and always will be the center of my universe and my reason for living! Having established these facts while hopefully motivating others to do the same, let's continue our study starting at verse seventeen.

“If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not! If I rebuild what I destroyed, I prove that I am a lawbreaker. For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2. verses 17-21,NIV)

Through the cross and resurrection Jesus died and yet lived. Through our unwavering faith, even though we were born dead as sinners, we yet live for Christ, having hung our old selves on the cross to die so that we can be truly “born again”. Aside from Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in the third chapter of John's gospel, this is one of the best explanations I can find throughout the New Testament of what it means to be a “born again Christian”. Just as Jesus sacrificed himself upon the cross, so we are to emulate our Savior by sacrificing our old, sinful selves upon our own cross, a cross which we must be willing to carry up our hill of Calvary as Jesus carried his. This hill of Calvary of ours can be anything that is undesirable or unwanted, such as a character flaw or personality defect, like a bad temper. It can also be something that seems stuck or otherwise immovable to us, such as a bad past, overcoming mental illness and addiction, or being long-term unemployed as I once was. It is not possible to be born again until our former selves have been put to death, and we must do so willingly because Jesus went willingly to the cross for all our sins. This does not necessarily have to happen all at once. We can believe and be born again at the moment we place our trust in Christ, but climbing our own hill of Calvary takes time, as I learned myself starting 23 years ago. It is an ongoing process for all of us, and we are all at varying stages along the way in our development as children of God. Just as children grow up under the watchful eye of their parents, so we are to grow up in the watchful eye of Jesus, becoming students of the Master Himself. There is no other way to be saved, Paul once wrote, and it's just as true today as it was 2,000 years ago. 

 

Let's consider this carefully, then. Salvation in Christ is far more than assuming a set of beliefs, rituals, or other pomp and circumstance. Our actions and personal sacrifices have nothing to do with salvation in and through Christ. Our salvation in Christ is only made possible by the shedding of Jesus' blood as he died on the cross. It is by His supreme sacrifice, by our faith and by His grace (in that order) that we are saved, Paul wrote, and not by the works of our hands. That means no matter whether we are a “good person” or not, or how much we tithed or gave to charity, or whether we were “nice” to everybody or not, is neither here nor there as far as Jesus is concerned. Salvation in Christ means becoming a whole new person, an entirely new creation crafted in His image and likeness, and it is often the opposite of the old. He replaces us with Himself, dwelling within us in a marvelous harmony that emanates from the human heart. His Spiritual indwelling is literally a cohabitation that exists within ourselves, which is exactly as it should be. And His cohabitation in the Spirit brings with it the peace of Christ – an internal peace with God, with others, and with ourselves that is so sublime that it is indescribable and defies human comprehension. That, brothers and sisters, is a goal worth shooting for every single day.