------- Galatians: Sola Gratia -------
Antinomianism (against the moral law of God) and Legalism (seeking righteousness through the law) are opposite sins and a proper view of God commands is part of a normal healthy Christian life. Things that are neither forbidden nor commanded by God are known as adiaphorous. To teach as a command of God something that He hasn’t commanded is sinful, just like teaching that something He has forbidden is OK to do.
The letter to the Galatians is a defense of the truth that salvation is the gift of God’s grace, unearned and undeserved, to be received by faith alone.
Galatians 1:6-10God’s grace comes to us at His initiative, by His call, and not because of anything we have done to deserve it. We must watch ourselves to keep from falling into this same error and thinking that we can add to something to the salvation that God offers freely as a work of His Grace. This can be a seductive heresy. We like to feel good about our own righteousness.
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let him be eternally condemned! As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let him be eternally condemned! Am I now trying to win the approval of men, or of God? Or am I trying to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ.
Those who add any additional requirements for salvation to faith in Jesus Christ, no matter how excellent their credentials, twist the gospel into another form. The preachers of the false gospel are under God’s condemnation. So if an angle named Moroni shows up with gold tablets and claims they are from God … then please do us all a favor and tell him to beat it.
Paul’s usual thanksgiving for his readers is here replaced by the threat of a curse, repeated for emphasis. God doesn’t repeat stuff that very often and this is a serious thing. This has serious implications for who we fellowship with. To seek “common ground” is a good thing but not if we allow it to compromise the Gospel. One of the most common points of departure is Grace. The mixture of Grace with works is always a red flag. Grace is a frequent point of attack by those who are drifting from God.
Galatians 2:16-21
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 faith in Christ and not by observing the law, because by observing the law no one will be justified. “If, while we seek to be justified in Christ, it becomes evident that we ourselves are sinners, does that mean that 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!”
Justification is a once for all monergistic (a single worker) work of God that brings you from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. You were born again by the Grace of God. Sanctification is the work of God that is progressive (by the Grace of God) as He sets your life apart for His purposes and for a fuller fellowship with Him. Sanctification is synergistic (we work together with God) and brings us inline with the moral law as our minds are conformed to His.
Verses 2:16 is the key verse of Galatians. The point is that everyone (Jew or Gentile) is placed in a right relationship with God through faith in Jesus Christ alone. By works of the law … no one is justified.
Historic Roman Catholic theology mixes sanctification in the definition of justification, making justification more of a process rather than a single decisive event. The Roman Catholic position agrees that faith contributes to our acceptance with God but adds that our works of satisfaction and merit must contribute too. Catholics see the sacrament of baptism as conveying the sanctifying grace that “first” justifies us. Afterwards you use penance to get additional supplementary merit through works since (in their view) justification is lost through mortal sin.
Of course this view means that you can’t really have confidence in your salvation. Our sins would therefore prevent confidence in our salvation since our merit is earned. Paul shows that we all are without merit and are in desperate need of free justification for salvation. A justification that needs to be completed by the recipient is no resting place.
1) Moral law differs from the ceremonial law. We as obedient children of God will obey the moral law but our obedience does not justify us before God. We obey to be pleasing children of God.
2) Our proper walk is between antinomianism and legalism with a correct view of the moral law in our lives.
3) Don't forget the principal of plucking out your eye if it causes you to sin but remember that doesn't mean that you go around pulling out everybody's eyes.
Galatians 3:1-5
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly 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?
The position that the Galatians held was so confused that Paul begins this line of argument as if they are under some sort of a trance. He asks if someone has bewitched them. Each of us needs to agree with Scripture that we became a Christian by faith and not by works of the law. However, we also need to be on guard against a sinful inclination to blend works into our spiritual lives.
------- Ephesians: We are One Church -------
“Nobody can emerge from a careful reading of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with a privatized Gospel. For Ephesians is the Gospel of the Church.” - Stott
Often people think that the Gospel in particular and Scripture in general, are available for private interpretation. We tend to minimize the difficult and sometimes painful issues of how you fit with other members of His Body and are accountable to others in the Body of Christ. Paul intercedes for the Ephesians, he affirms their faith, and stresses the role of the Church in spreading the Gospel.
Ephesians 1:13-14Christ is the one who reconciles us together as one body. So you can wander into a church on the other side of the planet with Zulu Christians and know they are part of your body. I know because I’ve tried it. The answer to “why are you?” is always repeated, “His will, His glory”
And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory.
Meditate on the fact that you are God’s possession. It is naturally to the praise of His glory but think about what it means to be His. Can anyone take you from Him? Will you behave as you did before you were redeemed? You are “for the praise of His Glory”! That is your answer to, “Why am I?” Now how are you going to live?
Ephesians 1:22-23We see our Head, the Head of the Church, in supreme authority. We see His headship in the Universe but the point of being Head of the Church is to stress that depth of authority that is His and moves all the way to your heart. He is Lord of your heart. He is Lord of the fine detail not just the big and general. Stott discusses the phrase, “the fullness of Him who fills all in all” and his third option (that he seems to feel is most true to scripture) is consistent with what I’m expressing. Christ fills the Church in fullness or indwelling and fills every nook and cranny with His Lordship. If you’ve got any closets you might as well invite Him in.
And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Ephesians 2:17-22As part of the Body of Christ I am a part of Israel by Christ’s work. I’m part of His household. It is better than just citizenship. The foundation that we are built upon is a rich foundation. Jesus is the chief cornerstone with a foundation of apostles and prophets. In a very practical way this means that we are built upon the scriptures.
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
This mystery was the union of Jew and Gentile to make a new Israel. The Jews were OK with God working with gentiles as long as they didn’t have to associate with them. Well God intended that we would be one body. The Jews didn’t like that. I don’t blame them and Paul was persecuted for that.
Ephesians 3:1-6
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.
Where is God’s Israel? You’re looking at part of it. And the black Zulu’s I spent Easter with one year are Israel and many Jew’s are Israel but they are not all Israel that are called Israel. Even though we (the Church) are Israel we still expect to eventually see a move of God there like He moved in our hearts. However, don’t let anyone call you a gentile because, if you are a believer, you’re not and it was bought at a great price.
Ephesians 5:8-14So Paul hammers away at slack attitudes. He says that I’m supposed to live as a child of light (showing goodness, righteousness, and truth) and that I’m supposed to figure out what pleases God. In a strange way, our lives should be offensive to those who are outside the Body of Christ.
For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) and find out what pleases the Lord. Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”
------- Philippians: Encouragement to Righteousness -------
In Philippians we don’t find the type of correction present in the other epistles. What we find in Philippians is encouragement. It is almost as if Paul becomes a coach encouraging the church and so it is a very encouraging lesson to us as well.
Philippians 1:8-11
God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.
First of all Paul acknowledges that the basis of his pastoral care is the affection that is within him from Christ Jesus. Paul is always careful to acknowledge the work of the Holy Spirit within him.
Secondly, Paul prays that they would abound in love. Paul is asking for a continual progressive growth in love. This means we are to be increasing in the fruit of love for all our lives.
Thirdly then Paul explains why we want to know and have depth of insight in the Love of God. It is so that we can discern what is best and be pure and blameless until the day of Christ.
Philippians 1:27To live in “a manner worthy” we must be engaged in the things of Christ. The means of Grace will be present and we’ll be running with patience. The Philippians would have understood this in the context of their Roman citizenship. They would have thought of the ways they functioned with the privileges and responsibilities of Roman citizenship and how this related to our position in Christ. They were privileged as children of the King of Kings and a member of the household of God. They were responsible to live a holy life and be true to the Gospel.
Whatever happens, conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ. Then, whether I come and see you or only hear about you in my absence, I will know that you stand firm in one spirit, contending as one man for the faith of the gospel
Philippians 2:1-2Paul identifies the key factors for our motivation:
If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
1) encouragement from being united with Christ,
2) comfort from God’s love,
3) fellowship with the Spirit, and
4) tenderness and compassion.
Paul says our minds should be like this when we serve God and that we should have God’s love as we serve in one spirit and purpose. That is a high call. It is the knowledge and depth of insight impact from Paul’s prayer in chapter 1. Transformation comes from knowing the truth and having that depth of insight which causes us to grasp the significance of the truth.
Philippians 2:3-3
Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
He says to do “nothing” out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. That is another really high call in our service to God. God will back us off and slow us down when we are working outside His leading. That is what I mean when I say that “burnout” is a gift from God. He doesn’t leave us alone when we are running down rabbit trails. He will interrupt our lives and bring us back to an attention to the Holy Spirit, the comfort of His Love, and our ability in Christ. If we get puffed up then He knows were all the pressure release values are and he’ll deflate us for our own good. And … if you keep truth in mind then it is easy to look after the interests of others and not just your own interests because you’ll realize that the health of the whole vine or the whole Church is necessary for your health too. You’ll serve naturally because your heart will be right.
Philippians 2:14-18
Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
As a further explanation of working out our salvation Paul tells us to never complain or argue. That would include all arguing and complaining about being told not to argue and complain. The purpose is not related to being justified before God. Remember that you can’t add to the justification that is completed by Christ in your life. We are called to obedience so that we’ll become blameless and pure, children of God without fault. We are called to be different in a fallen world that doesn’t serve or love God.
Philippians 3:1-3
Finally, my brothers, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. Watch out for those dogs, those men who do evil, those mutilators of the flesh. For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh—
Sola Gratia … we are saved by Grace alone. On that last day I pray none of you will be clinging to something that you have done for God. I pray that you’ll be singing “Nothing but the Blood of Jesus”. We have no claim to stand before God except for the work of Jesus on the Cross by which our sins have been forgiven and His righteousness has been imputed to us. God judges me to be in right standing with Him because of Jesus and His work alone.
One of the key questions used in Evangelism Explosion to clarify a person’s position with regard to the Gospel is “If you were to die tonight and God asked you why He should let you into heaven then what would you say?” If someone answers “Nothing but the blood of Jesus” then they may have an understanding of Grace. If someone answers, “Because I’ve been a pretty good person all my life and God grades on a curve” then they probably don’t understand the Grace by which we are saved. As the set of Laws given in Old Testament scripture came to an end as a means of obtaining righteousness then those who had always relied on them had a major hurdle to overcome in the Gospel. The Apostle Paul probably had the highest hurdle of anyone but the Holy Spirit radically changed his concept of where righteousness came from and why God should accept him.
Philippians 3:13-14Letting go of our failures and defeats is a hard lesson to learn. Even in sports failures can seem to build. We get a problem stuck in our head and we have trouble leaving it behind. We fail repeatedly and lose confidence that we’ll ever succeed. We can’t fix the past. We may have unrepentant sin in our past. You can fix that and need to right now. Once we have repented from past sins then the failure we must avoid is letting past failure stop us from following God today. Think of Paul. Think of what he did to the church. He was so bad people that people were scared to fellowship with him after he was saved. Paul was there when Stephen (the first martyr) was killed. Paul had worse things than you have to forget and leave behind. Life is too short to waste time (no matter how long or short) thinking of past failures. If you do that then you are disobedient to God because He is telling you, through Paul, to suck it up, shake it off, and get on with it.
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:8Our feelings are not as easily corrected by God as our thinking. God can command with His revelation in Scripture and we can obey. When God tells us to rejoice He isn’t telling us to generate a feeling of happiness. He is telling us to “rejoice in the Lord” or to rejoice in what we know to be true in Scripture. Even when I don’t feel happy I can rejoice in my salvation and my right standing with God and a whole list of God’s promises in scripture.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
------- Colossians; The Gospel is a Complete Revelation -------
This is a very encouraging epistle. The Colossians wanted to be holy and they just needed to be pointed back to the Gospel and assured that they were in right standing with God. They were being told that they didn’t have a full revelation of the mysteries of God and Paul wrote to encourage and confirm that the Gospel they received was the full Gospel.
Colossians 1:3-8The Colossians were told that their faith and love are known by Paul and the other Church leaders in Rome. They were also told that their faith and love spring from hope stored in heaven. Sometimes we have this the other way around. We think of our faith and love generating our hope in heaven. In the sense Paul is using these terms, our hope in heaven makes it possible for us to live lives of faith and to love others with God’s love as we are called too. We are not doing things in faith here on earth and loving people here on earth in order to secure a place in heaven. Our hope in the completed work of Christ provides the drive to be faithful and loving children of God. Paul is turning the Colossians away from a serious error.
We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God’s grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.
Paul doesn’t address the false teaching in Colossae directly by outlining the false teaching. We know they had some false teachers who were probably at least influenced by Gnosticism and the Colossians were being told they needed more for salvation and that they didn’t have the whole story. This is still a standard line of argument for cults and false religions. The idea of special knowledge or revelation is a current trap used by the enemy of your soul when he comes disguised as an angel of light.
Colossians 1:15-20
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.
Christ is that perfect representation of God. You can’t ask Jesus to show you God because Jesus will just tell you that if you’ve seen Him then you’ve seen God. It is a request that simply shows your ignorance … Jesus said to Philip, ““Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? (John 14:9). In his commentary, Calvin observes that “we must be careful not to look for Him anywhere else, for apart from Christ whatever offers itself to us in the name of God will turn out to be an idol”.
The primary take home lesson is that there is no spiritual authority above Christ. The Gospel is a clear expression of the highest and best. There is no “secret” you must learn to gain spiritual maturity apart from Christ. There is no part of God in other traditions that you are missing by following Christ. If someone is having conversations with God that contradict the Gospel taught in Scripture then I pray they would stumble and fall so that they might know the truth. After establishing the perfection and completeness of God’s revelation in Christ then Paul moves on to explain what Christ has done for you specifically.
Colossians 2:1-3Notice again that Paul is stressing the fullness of our revelation in Christ and that “the mystery of God” is Christ. We know Him in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If I needed a red string to protect me from mean looks from people who don’t like me then He would have told me that. Christ did teach about turning the other cheek and loving those who don’t love you but nothing about doing it with red string wrapped around you.
I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. My purpose is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Colossians 2:13-15Christ has done it all and to Him and Him alone you are a debtor. We were dead as a result of both our past sins and our sin nature. We are in need of a salvation with a double imputation (at least we’ll get that concept memorized by the time we finish this epistle). We need to be forgiven of our past sins and have a cure for our sinful nature. God made us alive in Christ with a nature that desires to be pleasing to God. We still struggle against our old nature but now we are alive in Christ. Our forgiveness is complete. He took it away and nailed it to the Cross. Christ took the wrath of God for the believer’s sins.
When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
Colossians 2:20-22We need to make sure we are free from thinking that our righteousness has any source but Christ. Our rules are a treasured but sinful source of feeling righteous and have been for thousands of years. We have all sorts of rules that we use to make ourselves feel righteous. Protestant churches have certainly had as much traffic in this arena as the Roman Catholic Church.
Since you died with Christ to the basic principles of this world, why, as though you still belonged to it, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!”? These are all destined to perish with use, because they are based on human commands and teachings.
Be sure to separate in your mind things that are part of the moral law from things that are not part of the moral law. We are told in Deuteronomy 4:2 that we are not allowed to add to or take from the law of God. The moral law still has claim on us. The issue in question in Colossians 2:20-22 are those things which are known as adiaphorous. That means they are things that God has neither commanded nor forbidden. This now includes those things in the ritual law which were fulfilled in Christ and no longer have claim on our lives. For example, have you eaten ham lately? If so, it had no impact on your holiness before God. It may have increased your girth but it was not a sin unless you were gluttonous. In other words the ritual prohibition against eating pork is gone but the moral law commanding us to not be gluttonous still stands. I think that generally we don’t find this very confusing on a day to day basis but teachings regarding adiaphorous actions are common in cults and even in some Christian fellowships. The fundamental problem, aside from the sin of violating Deuteronomy 4:2, is that these teachings pollute our understanding of our justification before God and confuse the process of our sanctification.
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