Galatians 1: 10-17

Tuesday, August 27, 2013         Galatians 1: 10-17

The Galatian churches had started requiring the keeping of Jewish law in order to earn, or maintain their relationship with God. Paul wants the church to be grounded in the Good News that our relationship with God is first, last and always based on faith, not works. Paul’s position seems rather simple and straightforward; however, the issue he is addressing has been the most difficult concept for the Christian church to grasp. Every church I know of has added to the Gospel with both explicit and implicit expectations of their members. This is not to say God does not have high expectations for His children. The Bible makes it abundantly clear that faith in Christ does not give us a license to sin. God’s great gift to us is holiness of heart, and now that we are grounded in grace in our relationship with Him, God expects us to pursue holiness of life. But living a life of holiness, or harmony with God, does not establish our right standing with Him. God’s gift of grace in Christ Jesus establishes our right standing; our thank you to God is our pursuit of holiness of life.

Paul asserts he received his message through a “direct revelation from Jesus Christ.” This isn’t just a biographical statement. Paul is affirming what Jesus taught Peter in Matthew 16. Jesus had asked his disciples “who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.” “Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out” (Matthew 16:17-18, The Message). The rock is not Peter as a person. The rock is God revealing to Peter, to Paul and to you and me the truth of Jesus Christ. This is how Paul expressed this truth in Romans 8: 16, “For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children.” The truth of God in Christ Jesus is beyond anything we can imagine or grasp on our own. The only way we can grasp this truth is to realize that Christ Jesus has already grasped us: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me” (Philippians 3:12, NKJV).

There is a cost to being followers of Jesus. Paul states he is a ‘slave’ of the Messiah. This is important because a slave bore the marks, or scars, of a slave. False apostles are not prone to suffer for their cause. If our faith costs us nothing, others will value our faith as meaningless.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  In addition to this BLOG they are distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        When Christ Thinks of Me: Meditations for the Followers of Jesus will be released on Amazon Kindle October, 1, 2013.

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.