Tuesday 30/7/13

Galatians 3:1 ESV

O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

How should we portray Christ to those who don't know Him? A great teacher? A prophet of God with many miracles? First and foremost, Paul and other Apostles portrayed Christ as being crucified on the cross, buried in the grave, and after 3 days raised up from the death. That is the uniqueness of Christ, and the power of God for our salvation and resurrection. That is the first thing we should portray Christ.

Friday 26/7/13

Galatians 2:21 NET

I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!

Human simply cannot obtain righteousness through the laws. No one can keep all the laws and do all the commandments. How many of us can say we really love God more than our job & procession? Like the rich "good" man, are we willingly sell all we have to follow Jesus? Is there any of us can say we love our neighbors as ourselves and treat the poor around us as we would treat ourselves or our children? If we are not willing, we have failed the 2 basic commandments and therefore, not good, cannot live with God in heaven and must go to hell after we die.

God knows our weaknesses and our slavery to our flesh, the worldly thinking and the spiritual  force of evil in this world. Therefore, God sent Christ to die for our sin. If anyone can be considered good, Christ died for nothing, unnecessarily. But Christ must die so that through Christ, we can be justified as good on God's eyes and can come to Him as His children.

Thursday 27/7/13

Galatians 2:17-20 NET

But if while seeking to be justified in Christ we ourselves have also been found to be sinners, is Christ then one who encourages sin? Absolutely not!  But if I build up again those things I once destroyed, I demonstrate that I am one who breaks God’s law. For through the law I died to the law so that I may live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

If we are justified by Christ's work at the cross, not by our good deeds or keeping the laws, then can we go on sinning? No, that will make Christ encouraging sin, which is wrong. When in Christ, our flesh is supposed to be crucified with Christ. We are died to our flesh, no longer response to its desires. Instead, Christ lives in us, thus we response to the commandments and the spirit of Christ. So being justified by Christ, we die to sin and to the laws, but we live with the mind and the spirit of Christ.

We may not be fully conform to the image of Christ in our flesh, but we need to learn and apply God's Word to grow in Christ as much as we can.

Monday 22/7/13

Galatians 2:16 NET

yet we know that no one is justified by the works of the law but by the faithfulness of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by the faithfulness of Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.

To be justified by the laws, we must love God with all we are, and love our neighbor as ourselves. Besides, we must keep all the laws without fail, and follow all the commissions in the Bible (e.g. Genesis 1:28, Matthew 28).  We may even need to withstand the temptationd after the 40-day fast. Anyone of us can say he has faithfully followed all these?

No, not even Abraham or Moses or David can do these. Only Jesus Christ can, thus only He can be victorious over death. Therefore, we need to seek righteousness in Jesus, not in our good work. We may fail time and time again, but thank be to God, our justification in Christ remains the same.

No one can keep all the laws, the commandmemts, and commissions of God to be justified as good in God's sight. Therefore, all need the saving grace of Christ.

Friday 19/7/13

Galatians 2:11-14 NET

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face, because he had clearly done wrong.   Until certain people came from James, he had been eating with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he stopped doing this and separated himself because he was afraid of those who were pro-circumcision.   And the rest of the Jews also joined with him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray with them by their hypocrisy.  But when I saw that they were not behaving consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in front of them all, “If you, although you are a Jew, live like a Gentile and not like a Jew, how can you try to force the Gentiles to live like Jews?”

What should we do when we see believers not acting consistently with the Gospel? Even the high profile like Peter and Barnabas? We must confront them to preserve the truth of the Gospel. We are to fear God not men, God's Word rather than worldly wisdom.

Here Paul opposed Peter first to the face, then in front of many people. Peter and Barnabas once had done correctly in fellowshiping with the Gentiles. However, they feared some Jews from the church of Jerusalem (represented by James), stopped the fellowship, then demanded the Gentiles to follow the custom of the Jews. So Paul fearlessly opposed and corrected them to preserve the truth of the Gospel.

Nevertheless, this correction must be done with discreet, strongly based on the Bible and lots of prayer. It also must be done first in private, then with the elder meeting. Public rebuke is just the last resort. It is not to bring someone down, but to bring a brother back to the way of God.

Thursday 18/7/13

Galatians 2:10 NET

They requested only that we remember the poor, the very thing I also was eager to do.

How often do we have the poor in our mind, especially our poorer neighbors? Or do we think mostly of our work, our money, and our family? Do we like the rich man who feast wastefully while Lazarus - the neighbor in front of his door -  eats crumbles fall out of the table? If we are like that, be careful, the rich man goes to hell and suffer eternally.

We must think of condition of the poor around us, first in our church, then in our neighborhood, and in the society in general. Even as Paul was very busy as the appointed Apostle to the Gentiles, he always remembered the poor, even those who were far away. He arranged donation from one church to support other church having difficulties.

Wednesday 17/7/13

Galatians 2:4-5 NET

Now this matter arose because of the false brothers with false pretenses who slipped in unnoticed to spy on our freedom that we have in Christ Jesus, to make us slaves.   But we did not surrender to them even for a moment, in order that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

We all want peace and harmony. However, if peace & harmony are achieved by surrendering truth to falsehood, righteousness to false pretense, freedom to forced behavior... then it is slavery. But there is no real peace in slavery, only suppression and hypocrisy.

Therefore, we ought not to surrdender to the false brothers with their false teaching, not for a moment. We must do our best to preserve the truth of the Gospel. That is more important than peace and harmony.

Tuesday 16/7/13

Galatians 2:2 NET

I went there because of a revelation and presented to them the gospel that I preach among the Gentiles. But I did so only in a private meeting with the influential people, to make sure that I was not running – or had not run – in vain.

When there is a dispute, we need to seek private meeting with the influential people first to seek their opinions. Paul received the revelation to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. He himself is a person full of wisdom and spirit of God. He also has a successful ministry. Nevertheless, he also saught advise from influential people in the church to make sure he is not running in vain, e.g. pursuing wrong goals. If Paul must seek advice to confirm his direction, even more so should we.