Under the tutor – the law. “Now before faith came we were held in custody under the law, being held as prisoners until the coming faith would be revealed. Thus the law had become our guardian until Christ so that we could be declared righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are
God did not give the law to the righteous people! “Some have strayed from these and turned away to empty discussion. They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not understand what they are saying or the things they insist on so confidently. But we know that the law is good if
The issue continued. Salvation by grace and obedience to the law must always be discussed as separate subjects! “I do not set aside God’s grace, because if righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!” (Galatians 2:21, NET). Christians must never study and discuss the justification and salvation by the faithfulness of
The issue. The issue concerning the justification and salvation through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ arose from misunderstanding the act of justification of sinners. Jews maintained, and unfortunately, some Christians do so today, that sinners must first repent and abandon their evil ways before they can be justified by “faith.” Paul, however, argues that sinners
The troubling issue. The method of salvation was an all-consuming issue among Jews who accepted Jesus as the Messiah and the Jews who did not. For both groups of Jews, the entire Torah with its ten commandments was the only way to salvation. Paul forcefully refutes this premise. Some Christians think Paul addressed the ceremonial
The Good News, apart from human effort. The message Paul summarized in verses 3 and 4 in the previous blog was for him such good news that he abruptly ends his description of it with” Amen.” Paul stated, ‘it is so,’ ‘it will be so forever; therefore, he made it the core of his letter
As stated in the previous blog, the Judaizers maintained that belief in Jesus Christ is not enough for our salvation. They insisted that faith in Jesus could only be the first step a sinner must take in the process of justification and salvation. Also, presently, some Christians maintain that the death of Jesus Christ on
“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you by the grace of Christ and are following a different gospel – not that there really is another gospel, but there are some who are disturbing you and wanting to distort the gospel of Christ.” (Galatians 1:6, 7, NET). Judaizers were
The letter from the Apostle Paul to the churches in Galatia is a critical letter for the modern-day Christians also. The issues Paul addresses in his letter to Galatians exist in the Christian community today. Even the sincere believers are sometimes confused and misled by often a deliberate perversion of the gospel, the good news
The new covenant. The covenants before Mount Sinai were God’s grants. They did not require a contribution or participation by the covenant recipients. However, the covenant made at Mount Sinai was not a grant. The covenant at Mount Sinai was an agreement between the people and God. The agreement was made at the request of
The problem with the Old Covenant established at Sinai. The people’s agreement at Mount Sinai did not establish a method of salvation. It did not institute a way to God for sinful humankind. God only can establish the way to him for the created orders of intelligence. The covenant at Sinai represents a human effort
The people broke the covenant. The agreement, the covenant that people made with God at Sinai, became ineffective. Why did the Old Scriptures covenant become useless? “For if there had been nothing wrong with the first covenant, no place would have been sought for another. But God found fault with the people and said: ‘The
Sinai agreement continued. The ten statements (commands) that God gave to the people were not beyond people’s ability to obey physically or outwardly. However, the people were not aware that their sinful nature could not obey the spirit of God’s requirements. The New Covenant Christians have the same problem. Some of those who consider