September 16, 2023
“My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NLT). Christianity is not a self-improvement course. We are not called
September 16, 2021
CHRISTIANITY IS NOT A SELF-IMPROVEMENT COURSE Christianity is not a self-improvement course. We are not called to come and do, but to come and die. For the new life is not self-improvement, but self-denial. We consider our old self “crucified with Christ” and our new self risen with Him to new life. We die to
September 15, 2019
JUSTIFICATION BY FAITH IN CHRIST ALONE Justification is the doctrine that God pardons, accepts, and declares a sinner to be just, “made right with God,” on the basis of Christ’s righteousness. Justification is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ apart from works. Paul was concerned that the Christians at Galatia, who had received
October 1, 2017 | Galatians 2:11 - 3:14 |
Freedom is connected to our faith. The word “faith” appears 12 times in today’s reading. Paul emphasized that it is faith in Christ that truly sets us free, not our own works of the law. In the apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatian churches, he told them that true freedom came not by works of the law, but by faith in Christ Jesus alone. Faith in Christ alone is the only way to experience true freedom.
September 24, 2017 | Galatians 2:1-10 |
The reason many people are not receiving the good news that sets us free today, is because they really haven’t heard the true gospel, or they heard it and received it, but then fell back into living by self-effort. This is what was happening to the Galatians. They had heard the true gospel from Paul, but they were in danger of losing their freedom in Christ by coming back under a slavery to self-effort. In the second chapter of Paul’s epistle to the Galatians, he explained why their freedom depended on the true gospel that he had preached to them. The true gospel is the only gospel that can set us free.
September 16, 2017
God’s grace, as Paul speaks of it here, is that which saves and sustains the one trusting in Christ’s finish work of salvation. Grace is about God’s mercy, while “works righteousness” is about our merit. But grace is more than mercy, for mercy only withholds the punishment we deserve. Yet, grace gives us the opposite of what we deserve. This is not only saving and sustaining grace, it is scandalous grace. For it gives the one who deserves an “F” on life’s test, an “A+.” How is this just? It is just because Christ died in our place. He took our “F” and offers us His “A+.” When we attempt to add law-keeping to salvation, we “set aside” grace. And having nullified grace, we nullify the work of Christ on the cross with it. Grace (Greek: χάρις, charis) is God’s unmerited favor freely bestowed on those who having recognized their own inability to save themselves, put their trust in Christ and His finished work of salvation. Grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone saves.
September 15, 2017
This was a pivotal meeting in the history of the Christian Church. The apostle Paul was moved both by a revelation from God and by his desire for unity with the other apostles concerning the matter of salvation by grace alone through faith alone. Certain people had come behind Paul into Galatia teaching that the Gentile believers should essentially become Jewish, following Jewish laws and customs. Paul was confident that the gospel the Lord had given him by revelation was not just a reform movement for Judaism, but good news for the whole world. One could come to Christ without becoming Jewish. The apostles in Jerusalem affirmed Paul’s gospel as the same gospel that Christ had given them. The gospel was for every nation, tribe and tongue. It was for the whole world. And it still is!
September 16, 2016
Christianity is not a self-improvement course. We are not called to come and do, but to come and die. For the new life is not self-improvement, but self-denial. We consider our old self “crucified with Christ” and our new self risen with Him to new life. We die to sin and we also die to self-effort, no longer trying to please God by following some set of religious rules and regulations that we are unable to keep. Dying to self, we live by Christ, “trusting” in Him to live His life in and through us.
September 15, 2015
Paul was concerned that the Christians at Galatia, who had received salvation by faith in Christ, were exchanging their faith for a focus on law-keeping. Those saved by faith are to live by faith, not by works. Yet this tendency still befalls many believers today. We recognize our sin and total dependence on Jesus for salvation, but then try to live the Christian life in our own strength. A focus on law-keeping leads to self-righteousness, pride and an inordinate comparing of ourselves to others. Living by faith in Jesus, we work, but we do so only according to Christ’s power. We work out what God is working in us (Phil.2:12-13). Our righteousness is us in Christ. And our life is Christ in us.
September 16, 2014
Christianity is not a self-improvement course. We are not called to come and do, but to come and die. For the new life follows not self-improvement, but self-denial. We consider our old self “crucified with Christ” and our new self risen with Him to new life. We die to sin and we also die to self-effort, no longer trying to please God by following some set of religious rules and regulations that we are unable to keep. Dying to self, we live by Christ, “trusting” in Him to live His life in us.