Comments on Galatians, continued

(I started writing last Thursday - then was interrupted, so am getting back to what I started then.... This blog entry is a continuation from my last entry.)

Salvation is through Christ alone. There is no other way to God except through Him. There is no other name under heaven by which men must be (or may be) saved.

The thick, woven veil of the temple was rent in two from top to bottom at His death. While all of the lambs, kid-goats and doves that were slain over the years were a symbol of the price that must be paid, He was the actual payment. He was the Passover lamb, and He died at Passover, not just by accident because he had thoroughly upset the authorities (as some would have you believe) but because He was the fulfillment of everything Jewish faith had taught.

When He sat with His disciples He clearly told them that from that night forward, whenever they celebrated the Passover, that it was no longer about the miraculous rescue from Egyptian captivity under Moses - but it was about Him. At the original Passover in Egypt it was only those who had the blood of the lamb over their doorposts whose households were spared from death of the firstborn. From Jesus' death and resurrection on, there was no further need for sacrificing animals. He was the final sacrifice - and the final priest. It is now, through the power of His blood shed for us, that we are saved from death - eternal death. His blood, and His alone. No substitutes accepted.

In Galatians, written either 15 or 25 years after Jesus' death and resurrection, the purity of the gospel of what He did for mankind is already being muddied with false teaching.

Verse 7ff: ...there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

Instead of accursed, I would say pitied. Vengeance is the Lord's, not mine. I don't want anyone to be cursed. I want everyone to repent and walk in the light. I know they won't - but that's what I want.

Still, there is an important message in Paul's fervor. When Jesus stood with his disciples at Caesarea Philippi (aka Banias and numerous other names over the years) just outside the area called 'The Gates of Hell', which is a cave in the wall of the cliff, He asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?" They told him the various answers they had heard. Then he asked, "But who do you say that I am?" And Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God." Peter got it right. His declaration is the synopsis of the Gospel. Jesus is the Good News. Jesus alone.

There is no other way to God except through Him,and there is nothing added that we can do to earn salvation except believe in Him and accept the offer of salvation. It is too simple for a lot of people.

Of course we will live differently once we believe. Of course the Holy Spirit will nudge Jesus' followers to change, and start cleaning up the way people talk and act in that process - - but those are responses to Grace, not prerequisites for it. And - it is still God changing us through the power of the Holy Spirit - - not something we do. We can't be conformed to His Son, except through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It never becomes about what we can do to earn God's favor!

The leaven of the Pharisees was that they had a myriad of rules one had to follow to be accepted by God. They added 'leaven' to the basic message. They made it about us doing something. We didn't. We can't. Jesus did it all. He paid it all. Salvation is by grace alone. What a relief when we finally grasp that!

I was a Presbyterian for 38 years. One of the phrases I loved in the Presbyterian Church was 'we are saved and being saved'. I think it expresses the reality of the Christian walk quite well. There is a point of being saved that reflects the initial acceptance of God's grace - - and beyond that we are 'being saved' daily, recognizing areas God is working on in us to make us conform more and more to the image of His Son. While we partner with God in those changes becoming effective, we can't change ourselves without His help.

Salvation is a gift - freely given. Beyond that, our response to grace is to want to be more and more like the One who paid the price for our salvation!

Thank You, Lord, for Your overwhelming love. You are too marvelous for words....

Devotional Reading for Today - Galatians

I've been reading Paul's writings in the order my NIV purports them to have been written, but have since learned the one book that others disagree with for that timeline is Galatians. The ESV commentary places the writing of Galatians about 10 years earlier - and before 1 & 2 Thessalonians.... The reality is, the lists are made based on the best information available, and there is room for legitimate disagreement. The exact sequence of the writing of Galatians is not a key faith issue.

Galatians does deal with key faith issues, however. The very first one is the issue of the content of the gospel - the Good News of Jesus Christ. It is compelling to me that the early church was already grappling with that issue. Actually, it is a little bit shocking!

There is only one Truth, only one gospel. The promised Mashiach (Messiah) came to earth as a baby named Yeshua. In Greek He was Iesous Christos. In English He is called Jesus Christ, or Jesus the Messiah.

The simple truth of the gospel is that Jesus came - fully God and fully human - to be the sacrifice for humanity's sins - all of them, from the first sin Adam and Eve committed forward.

He lived. He died. He rose again. He will come again in glory to rule and reign.

The gospel - - which means 'good news' - - is that Jesus is the One who was the long-awaited Messiah, the perfect lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.

to be continued....