Year 2, Week 42, Day 2 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 42, Day 2

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Galatians 1-3.

Today’s reading begins the Book of Galatians. Galatians, which is most likely the first of the Apostle Paul’s Books to become a part of the New Testament Scriptures, was written to address false teachers. The issues addressed at the Jerusalem council (see Acts 15), are the subject matter of Paul’s letter to the churches in the region of Galatia. Often called the circumcision party, this false teaching advocated for regulations, restrictions, and requirements that were put forth for the nation Israel during the era of the Mosaic Covenant, to be practiced as an essential part of how salvation is obtained. Galatians 1 sets much of the tone for the letter by emphasizing that it is the nature of the Gospel itself that is at stake: “I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel…If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed” (Galatians 1:6-9). Galatians 2 continues a unit that Paul began in Galatians 1, wherein Paul chronicles his life, ministry, and message, which received wholehearted approval from the other apostles: “On the contrary, when they saw that I had been entrusted with the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had been entrusted with the gospel to the circumcised…and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised” (Galatians 2:7-9). Acts 3 contains Paul’s firm appeal to the Galatian believers to consider how they began and therefore are to continue the Christian life: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified…Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-3). The Christian maturity through faith and not by works of the Law.

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the Apostle Paul’s careful explanation of the doctrine of justification as well as the doctrine of transformation (which is more commonly stated as sanctification). The Book of Galatians has much to say about justification: “yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified” (Galatians 2:16). There are many wonderful facets to the salvation that Christ has obtained for His people. One very crucial blessing of salvation is what we call justification. The doctrine of justification addresses how sinners can have a right standing, that is, be in a right relationship with God who is infinitely holy and righteous: “Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous” (Psalm 1:5). Beyond the moment of their judgment, sinners will not dwell before God. Sinners possess their sin, which condemns them before God; but they also lack the righteousness, which would qualify them to come near to God. Justification explains how our sin and condemnation is taken from us, but also how righteousness and a welcomed acceptance is given to us. Christ is the grounds of our justification. The particular confusion that was occurring among the churches of Galatia was how the blessing of justification is applied. Would Christ’s justifying work come through faith or by works of the Law? Paul is emphatic: “by works of the law no one will be justified.” Christ’s justifying work is received through faith: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us…so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:13-14). It is through trusting in Christ and not by law keeping that we are not only declared pardoned of our sins, thus no longer condemned, but that we are also declared righteous, thus acceptable in God’s sight.

Faith in Christ is the instrumental means by which a person is joined to Jesus. A believer’s union with Christ; however, not only graces us with the saving benefits of justification, our union with Christ also graces us with the saving benefits of transformation: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Not only did Christ die on our behalf, therefore legally removing our sin and condemnation as well as legally establishing our righteousness and acceptance; we did with Christ. Being joined to Jesus through faith does not merely justify us, it is also the basis to transform us. For our death with Christ results in new life with Christ. The kind of life that believers live is no longer the kind of life that they formerly lived. Believers are dead to their former manner of life, and alive to an entirely new kind of life: “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4). Christ now lives inside of believers and it is the indwelling presence of Christ that transformation comes about. The indwelling life of Christ, as Paul will elaborate on more fully in the remainder of the Book of Galatians, is by the Holy Spirit, who radically transforms us at the level of our conduct, but also our desires.

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe