TODAY IN THE WORD

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Psalm 51
Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God . . . and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. - Psalm 51:14
TODAY IN THE WORD
The Song of Roland, a semi-historical epic, tells of Charlemagne’s disastrous campaign into Spain around A.D. 778, where his enemy massacred the best men in his army. Charlemagne, of course, was not supposed to fail. To many he stood larger than life, a hero as well as a king. But now he had failed, and his best troops and invincible reputation were gone. What would he do?

Psalm 51 finds David in a similar position. Called by God, he stood steadfast in faith even when pursued by Saul. He won key victories that brought Israel power and security they had never known. He was a hero. But then he seduced Bathsheba and murdered Uriah in cold blood. Psalm 51 is David’s response to this disaster.

First we note that David is talking to God and not at Him. When caught red-handed, sometimes children spew out a series of, “Sorry sorry sorry! Don’t punish me!” Here, part of the text is almost playfully argumentative (vv. 4, 13, 15,18). He seems to say, “God, think of the good your forgiveness can do!” Far from irreverent, it shows David’s trust in his relationship with God.

David also knew his limitations. He cannot do anything to balance the scales. All we can bring to God is our brokenness (vv. 16-17). In verse 10, David uses the Hebrew word bara, which is almost always used in conjunction with God’s power. Instances where it refers to man speak of enlargement (cf. 1 Sam. 2:29, Josh. 17:15). Both senses fit the context here. David needed a “new creation,” just like in Genesis 1. His heart needed to be pushed beyond his brutal selfishness.

David closed with an appeal to God’s desire to bless us. As a proud father, He wants to see His children succeed (vv. 18-19). Repentance is David’s theme. But once again we see that repentance is never really about us or our sin, but about God’s love and the future we can have, freed from the burden of sin’s power.

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David could not change the death of Uriah or the impending death of his child. But he knew that God could change his heart. The cleansing power of God’s love can constantly renew us. This is why David has always been a model for God’s people, and he can be for us today. He knew that sin was never the end, but a chance for a new beginning with God and a reaffirmation of our relationship with Him.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Philippians 2:1-11
And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death. - Philippians 2:8
TODAY IN THE WORD
The philosopher Aristotle was more practical than most. At the heart of his treatment of ethics, he discussed the importance of friendship. Friendship was so important to him that he surmised that its lack made the good life of virtue nearly impossible.

As we close our study of repentance this month, we examine the Incarnation. While Christ of course had no sin, His humility shows us the way toward repentance. He shows His care for us by offering us, among other shocking things, His friendship.

If we reflect on our own lives, we see that we often stumble when alone. We saw Peter deny Christ when by himself. David sinned with Bathsheba when he should have been with the army. Isolation not only makes us more likely to think we can get away with it, it also weakens our resistance to temptation.

Knowing what was in the heart of humanity (John 2:25), Christ voluntarily humbled Himself. He did not sin but did, in a sense, reorient His perspective. He “did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage” (Phil. 2:6), and He agreed to walk in our shoes and experience human limitations. Crucially, Hebrews 4:15 tells us that Christ can “empathize with our weaknesses,” because He has experienced temptation as we have. During His forty-day fast in the desert, He even experienced His temptation alone (Matt. 4:1-11). On the Cross, when forsaken even by the Father Himself, He humbled Himself by “becoming obedient to death.”

C. S. Lewis wrote that friendship begins, “when one person says to another, ‘What, you too! I thought I was the only one!’” We are not alone in our temptations, and God has not abandoned us to our sin. Aristotle commented that “a friend is a single spirit in two bodies.” We have Jesus’ promise to be with us always (Matt. 28:20) and His Holy Spirit as a pledge of our future inheritance (Eph. 1:13-14). James called Abraham a “friend of God,” (James 2:23), and if we are Abraham’s children (Gal. 3:7-9) we too can experience this friendship through the gift of repentance.

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We see the width and breadth of Christ’s call to us in the first story related to the Incarnation, when poor Jewish shepherds, at the bottom of the economic ladder, are called to witness his birth (Luke 2:1-20). Some time later, wealthy and well-educated wise men from the East come to worship. From poor Jew to wealthy Gentile, Christ calls all of us to be His friends. Let us heed His example of humility, and “Repent and believe the good news!” (Mark 1:15).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Genesis 17:1-14
Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. - Genesis 15:6
TODAY IN THE WORD
In November 2009, the White House hosted a state dinner in honor of the Indian Prime Minister, and an American couple managed somehow to penetrate security. Only later was it discovered that they weren’t invited guests, but rather two brazen people who pushed their way into the high-profile event.

In the book of Galatians, written to a group of Gentile believers, Paul wanted to settle once and for all the question of who is on God’s guest list. False teachers had come to the Galatian churches, insisting that only the circumcised would make the cut. Paul defended the truth that Jew and Gentile alike have been included, through Christ, on God’s guest list.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul explored the story of Abraham to answer this confusion, so in our reading today, we return to this narrative. When he was 75 years old, Abram received the divine invitation to leave all that was familiar and go to a foreign land. Abraham was promised that through him, all families of the earth would be blessed (see Genesis 12).

In Genesis 17, almost 25 years later, God gave Abraham a sign of the covenant, which was the mark of circumcision. The terms were strict: every male in every household of his descendants must be circumcised. No exceptions could be made; even foreign slaves must be circumcised. And if the command of circumcision was disobeyed, one’s membership status in God’s family was revoked.

Against all odds, Abraham—despite his aging body and despite he and Sarah’s inability to conceive children over the many long decades—believed the divine promises (see today’s key verse). It is to this verse, and indeed to this story, that many New Testament writers, including Paul in Galatians, returned again and again. Because of his great faith, Abraham is the father of all people, whether Jew or Gentile, who have placed their faith in God’s Son Jesus. This was critical for the Galatians to understand, for they had been doubting whether, as uncircumcised believers, they could fully lay claim to the inheritance promised to Abraham.

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Abraham had every reason to disbelieve God. For more than twenty-five years, there wasn’t a shred of physical evidence that God would keep His promises to him. But Eugene Peterson says this about the faith modeled by Abraham: “We need testing. God tests us. The test results will show whether we are choosing the way of awe and worship and obedience.” Pray for the persevering faith of Abraham that withstood the test and dared to trust God in the midst of impossibilities.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 1:1-5
I thank Christ Jesus our Lord . . . that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service. - 1 Timothy 1:12
TODAY IN THE WORD
In 1976, Vie Carlson bid $400 for the angry letter Frank Sinatra wrote to Chicago Daily News columnist Mike Royko. Twenty years later, that letter was valued at more than $15,000. In the letter, Sinatra promised Royko $100,000 if he could prove that Sinatra punched the elderly man Royko claimed he did. He could double his earnings if he could pull Sinatra’s alleged hairpiece. “Quite frankly,” Sinatra fumed, “I don’t understand why people don’t spit in your eye three or four times a day.”

It is always telling how a person responds to criticism and personal attack, and Paul began his letter to the Galatians having to do just this. Conspicuously absent are the customary greetings and blessings of his other letters. Rather, Paul had to immediately assume a defensive posture.

Much more is at stake than Paul’s personal reputation. His critics wanted to subvert the gospel he had been preaching, and their first line of attack was to discredit Paul as an apostle. If Paul was to defend the gospel he preaches, he must also defend the validity of his apostleship. He reminded the Galatians that he had been sent by Jesus Christ and God the Father. No man commissioned him, not Peter or any other elder of the church. He had a divine call, and therefore he had legitimate apostolic authority. The forcefulness of his defense, which becomes even clearer as we read on in chapter one, helps us to realize the critical nature of the attack.

The gospel is what matters most. The Galatians had to understand the gospel rightly, and these opening verses summarize the gospel. The theology of Galatians is Trinitarian: the gospel is a shared work of the Father, Son and Spirit. In these opening verses, Paul exalts the work of the God the Father through the Son, Jesus Christ. Both have willingly expressed their love for humanity. God the Father sends Jesus for our rescue; God the Son lays down His life as payment for our sins. By the end of this letter, we’ll see even more clearly the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit. For this spectacular mission to save the world, God deserves glory forever and ever.

APPLY THE WORD
Paul didn’t always defend himself when attacked. In 1 Corinthians 4:3, Paul told his critics, “I care very little if I am judged by you.” So why was Paul so eager to defend his apostleship in his letter to the Galatians? He was convinced that the truth and purity of the gospel were at stake, and he was really rallying to the defense of the gospel. When we suffer personal attack, we should follow the example of Paul and use wisdom to discern when and why it’s appropriate to respond.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 1:6-9
My dear children . . . I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. - Galatians 4:19
TODAY IN THE WORD
If you ever watch sports, you’ve seen this scenario: a time-out is called, and the players gather breathlessly around the coach. The coach’s words are punctuated with urgency. He doesn’t smile. He gestures emphatically at his clipboard. The outcome of the game hangs in the balance.

Paul is like this coach on the sidelines. His words are urgent. The situation, as he sees it, is tenuous. Paul doesn’t waste any time in his letter to the Galatians before addressing the dire problem he sees in their churches. False teachers have been given standing in the churches, and the Galatians have been deceived. The error of the Galatians actually threatens their standing in Christ. Paul accused the Galatians of having abandoned God the Father and the gospel of Jesus Christ. They have deserted the One who called them and embraced another gospel.

What Paul wants to emphasize is that the message that the Galatians have now believed is really no gospel at all. The Galatians, of course, didn’t see it that way. Most likely, the false teachers hadn’t asked the Galatians to renounce their faith in Christ. No, their message was probably much more subtle. They’ve criticized Paul’s ministry, trying to discredit him and expose what they see as the error of his preaching and teaching. They’ve elevated their teaching as the “true” gospel. To Paul’s horror, they’ve preached the necessity of circumcision to Gentile believers (cf. 5:2).

Paul answers back emphatically: May all of God’s curses fall on them, or on anyone in fact who preaches anything other than the gospel of Jesus Christ! Paul was not going to cede any ground to these false teachers. He would not compromise the gospel, nor would he give up on the Galatians so easily.

What we start to see in this letter is Paul as a man who’s fiercely committed to the Galatians and who wants to secure their total commitment to Christ. Like a coach explaining a key play in the game, Paul carefully outlined an argument in his letter for the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

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In his commentary on Galatians, John Chrysostom wrote of the situation facing the Galatians, “Those who wished to deceive them did not do so all at once but gently estranged them from the faith in fact, leaving the names unchanged. For such are the wiles of the devil, not to make apparent the instruments of his hunt.” For this reason, we must all guard against false doctrine, even within our churches, and imitate the Bereans, who devoutly studied Scripture (see Acts 17:10-15).

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 1:10-12
If I were still trying to please people, I would not be a servant of Christ. - Galatians 1:10
TODAY IN THE WORD
Towards the end of his second term, President George W. Bush set a record for the highest disapproval rating in the 70-year history of the Gallup poll. But in his recently published memoir, the former president resolutely affirms, “I had always done what I believed was right.”

Being popular and being principled don’t always go hand-in-hand. The apostle Paul realized this in the context of his own ministry. To be faithful to the call of God and the truth of the gospel would make him wildly unpopular in most places. Early on, Paul had to settle in his mind the answer to these all-important questions: Whom am I trying to please? Whose approval do I seek? As a faithful minister of the gospel, his answer had to be Christ and Christ alone. He could not simultaneously seek the approval of people and of God. He had to surrender the desire to be liked, to be understood, and to be approved. This, as we’ll see later in the letter, was not true of the false teachers.

Paul’s ministry is accredited by the fact not only that he exclusively sought the approval of Christ, but also that he received a divine message and call. The gospel Paul preached is not of “human origin.” That is to say, Paul hadn’t learned the gospel secondhand from Peter or any other leaders of the early Christian church. He was not making it up to suit his own purposes, either. Paul received his commission directly from Jesus Christ, the crucified Messiah. His Damascus Road experience made him a true Apostle.

If the gospel Paul had received were of human origin, it would weaken his message and his authority. The gospel would be subject to human ratification or amendment. And it would put Paul under the authority of his teachers. But because Paul received the gospel directly from Jesus, the message was guaranteed to be true. As such, it would be protected. As well, Paul could claim a divine authority in his ministry.

Paul’s claims were bold but necessary for the defense of his apostleship and the defense of the gospel.

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Many people claim they receive special revelation from God and then found cults like the Mormons and Christian Science. Some accused Paul of having fabricated the story of his encounter with Jesus and inventing the Christian religion. But as we’ll see throughout Galatians, Paul argues for how the message of Jesus Christ is rooted in the Old Testament. God’s story of providing salvation for His people has been consistent throughout time; we can have confidence in this truth.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Acts 22:1-21
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth. - 1 Peter 1:3
TODAY IN THE WORD
No Compromise recounts the radical conversion of Christian singer and songwriter, Keith Green. As a young man trying to make his way in show business, Keith experimented with drugs and the free love lifestyle before coming to faith in Christ. After he was saved, his passionate zeal for Christ and personal holiness ignited spiritual fire in those who knew him and listened to his music.

The apostle Paul was also dramatically converted to Christ, and in our reading for today, he was addressing a crowd of Jews who had begun rioting in Jerusalem because he had appeared at the temple flanked by Gentiles. He had been accused of having defiled the temple and taken into custody. What he shared confirms everything he told the Galatians. Before his conversion, he was a Jew zealous for the Law. He opposed the message of Jesus Christ, going so far as to imprison those Jewish men and women who had converted to the Way.

Everything changed one day when Paul met Jesus Christ personally on the road to Damascus. He heard an audible voice address him by name, and the voice identified Himself as none other than Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus ordained Paul as an apostle, commissioning him specifically as the one to preach to the Gentiles.

This personal and visible encounter with Jesus Christ qualified Paul for ministry as an Apostle. Paul wasn’t sleeping or experiencing a dream-like vision of Jesus. This encounter happened, and although Paul’s companions with whom he was traveling did not hear the voice, they could confirm that Paul was blinded by the divine light and changed dramatically by the turn of events.

Paul’s defense of his apostleship centers around this idea of revelation: what he knows of Jesus and what he preaches of Jesus have been revealed to him by God himself. Paul had not personally sought out Jesus, nor had he taken initiative to consider the message of Jesus. Indeed, he was actively opposing Jesus when God suddenly intervened, radically turning him from hostility to faith in Christ.

APPLY THE WORD
Whatever the story of our conversion, whether dramatic or seemingly ordinary, the truth is always that God sought us and revealed Himself to us. His saving action and initiative in our lives is driven by His grace and mercy. In our sinful state, we could not acknowledge the truth of who He is and what He’s done on our behalf. But God’s gracious revelation of Himself leads us to confession in faith. For this we give Him praise!

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 1:13-16
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. - Galatians 5:1
TODAY IN THE WORD
Yigal Amir was born into an Orthodox Jewish family in 1970. His mother was a kindergarten teacher, his father a Jewish scribe. As a university student, Amir became actively involved in right-wing protests against Israel’s signing of the Oslo Accords. On November 4, 1996, Amir shot and killed Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin. Later at his trial, Amir defended himself very simply: “According to the Halacha [Jewish legal code], you can kill the enemy.”

We could compare Saul of Tarsus to Yigal Amir. Saul belonged to the strictest sect of the Pharisees, a group whose concern wasn’t simply personal piety but also political revolution. Zeal for the Jew, in this first-century context of Roman occupation, called for violent overthrow of the Roman regime. As one scholar described it, “For the first-century Jew, ‘zeal’ was something you did with a knife.”

In today’s reading, Paul asserted that before his conversion to Christianity, he was extremely “zealous” for Jewish traditions. He is speaking of what once was his violent hatred for anything that stood in the way of Jews worshiping freely and observing the Torah. Saul hated Jesus of Nazareth and wanted to wipe the Christian gospel off the map. He was committed to its complete annihilation.

Saul was an educated Jew. His theology and his zeal were rooted in rigorous study of the Torah and the Jewish traditions. He was noted by his fellow scholars as one advancing rapidly in knowledge, a sort of up-and-comer in Jewish circles. He’d made a name for himself as one totally devoted to Yahweh and Torah . . . and as one totally committed to the demise of this newfound Way.

In his letter to the Galatians, Paul set forth this autobiographical information as an important part of his argument. The Gentile Christians in Galatia were being tempted to root their identity not in the free saving grace of Jesus but in the Jewish Law and traditions. Taking them back to his days as a zealous Jew, Paul is in effect saying, “I tried that! God rescued me from it. Don’t go back there!”

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Later in chapter 4, Paul referenced the Exodus narrative of the Jewish people. The story is meant to shape our understanding of salvation. We’re called out of darkness and slavery into light and freedom. Don’t go back to Egypt! Maybe you’re a new believer, and Jesus called you out of particular patterns of thinking, responding, and behaving. Don’t turn back to old patterns of sin. Press forward, with the help of the Holy Spirit, toward the new life you have through Jesus.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 1:17-24
Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by a man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father. - Galatians 1:1
TODAY IN THE WORD
The movie The Social Network tells the story of how Facebook was founded. Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg launched the site from his dorm room, and within a matter of weeks, there were tens of thousands of users. With the explosion of Facebook’s success, Zuckerberg was persuaded to move from Boston to spend the summer in Silicon Valley, headquarters for high-tech companies like Google, Apple, Intel, and Adobe.

Just as Silicon Valley is today’s capital for information technology, Jerusalem was the first-century headquarters for the Christian church. One could find Peter, James, and the other Apostles, and learn more about the story of the resurrected Jesus. Jesus’ disciples were gathering in local synagogues. Public baptisms were taking place. The streets were abuzz with news of this crucified and resurrected Jesus of Nazareth.

Paul went to great lengths in his letter to the Galatians to say that it wasn’t until three years after his conversion that he made his first trip to Jerusalem. He vehemently declared that he had no contact with any of the Apostles before this trip to Jerusalem, and when he did in fact go, his visit lasted only fifteen days. What’s more, during his brief stay, Paul managed introductions with only two of the prominent Apostles.

That Paul had not had any contact with Jerusalem in these early years is an important part in the defense of his apostleship. In the timeline that he lays out (which we can verify in similar accounts in Acts and some of the other epistles), we know that Paul was preaching the gospel immediately after his conversion and prior to meeting with Peter and James in Jerusalem. Paul’s ministry was launched without approval from “headquarters.” He did not need to clarify with the leaders in Jerusalem the content of the Christian gospel. Paul’s encounter with Jesus was fully sufficient for salvation and ministry, and the report that circulated about him in the years subsequent to his conversion confirmed the authenticity of the Apostle’s testimony. The gospel he preached was the true gospel, and others praised God because of him.

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Although Paul was uniquely called and commissioned by God, he still needed the support and encouragement of other believers (see 1 Cor. 12:4-29). Each of us might have a particular calling or gift that we are to use to serve God, but we still need a life of discipleship, fellowship and ministry in the context of our local churches. Our spiritual confidence comes from God alone, but He has provided us with fellow believers so that we can grow and serve. We need each other!

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 2:1-5
We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you. - Galatians 2:5
TODAY IN THE WORD
George Washington courageously served as commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. He was a fierce patriot and was unanimously elected as America’s first president. Washington served reluctantly in our nation’s highest office, especially upon entering his second term. He refused a third term. His commitment to American freedom was unflagging, but he longed at the end of his life to retire from public service and return to the pastoral countryside of Mount Vernon.

Everyone who fights for freedom usually does so at great personal cost. Freedoms are won by hard-fought battles, and the spiritual freedoms afforded by the gospel of Jesus had to be fiercely protected by Paul. The freedom to which Paul refers in the opening verses of Galatians 2 is the freedom to belong as a full-fledged member to the family of God exclusively because of the death of Jesus Christ of our behalf. The false teachers rejected this “free” gospel. They preached that Gentile Christians must participate in the Jewish rite of circumcision in order to receive full membership status in the divine covenant. No doubt they turned to the Hebrew Scriptures as evidence.

This false teaching had been circulating prior to the present situation in Galatia. Paul records here details about his second trip to Jerusalem, some fourteen years after his conversion, and well before this letter to the Galatians. Paul and Barnabas, along with Titus and presumably some other disciples, had gone to deliver an offering on behalf of the Gentile churches for those affected by a recent famine (cf. Acts 11:27-30). Titus was a Gentile, and despite those who had already been arguing for the necessity of circumcision, Paul records that Titus was not compelled by the leaders in Jerusalem to be circumcised. He was apparently received and fully embraced as a brother in Jesus Christ.

This matter of whether or not circumcision was necessary for believers was not a minor issue for Paul. It posed a critical threat to the integrity of the Christian gospel and the freedoms Jesus meant for His followers to enjoy.

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The followers of Jesus in the first-century had a sense of the “Jewishness” of the Christian gospel. We might not debate circumcision as necessary to follow Christ but we still wrestle with a “free” gospel. Every generation faces the temptation to add requirements to the gospel, creating lists of who is “in” and “out.” As we study this letter, may our hearts be open to the Holy Spirit’s instruction about how the gospel frees us from the burdens we might place on ourselves or others.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 2:6-10
There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:28
TODAY IN THE WORD
Until just two years ago, tensions between minority Tamils and majority Sinhalese had plunged Sri Lanka into a decades-long civil war. Now that the war has ended, Tamils and Sinhalese are overcoming ethnic barriers and finding commonalities around two surprising things: cricket and cuisine. Once-bitter enemies have found themselves cheering for the same teams and enjoying the same food.

Tragically, ethnic conflicts have simmered across the globe, from the distant past continuing to the present day. Ethnic identity can comprise an important part of who we are, but sometimes it is twisted into a dividing line to separate “us” from “them.” Even the church has suffered from this tendency.

In the first-century, new Christian believers didn’t automatically lose the ethnic labels of “Jew” and “Gentile.” Jews who had converted to the Christian faith still retained a strong sense of their Jewish-ness. Gentiles struggled to overcome the “outsider” status that had been theirs in the worship of Yahweh for many centuries. The Galatian churches found themselves at the center of these ethnic tensions. Did identifying oneself with Jesus and choosing to follow Him mean shedding the ethnic distinctions of centuries past? What did it mean to be a Jew or Gentile in the light of the cross?

In Galatians 2, Paul shares details of his second trip to Jerusalem, which turned out to be a very amicable meeting with Peter. They affirmed each other’s calling by God: Peter had been commissioned to take the gospel to the Jews, Paul to the Gentiles. Paul affirmed that God was indeed at work through the ministry of Peter, and despite their later disagreements, he did not seek to discredit Peter’s ministry in any way.

But for all the respect and honor that Paul pays to Peter and to his ministry, there is no sign of Paul’s subordination to Peter. Paul knew that the false teachers had accused him of being a second-tier apostle with a second-rate gospel. But he will not back down from the defense of his apostleship.

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Today’s reading paves the way for Paul to discuss the later disagreement he had with Peter. He models for us what constructive disagreement can look like in the church. Disagreement does not have to be synonymous with personal attack. Paul respected Peter and believed they were partnering together in the work of the gospel. And on the other hand, Paul didn’t assume any kind of false humility. He unapologetically confronted a fundamental compromise of the gospel.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 2:11-14
I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel. - Galatians 2:14
TODAY IN THE WORD
The Help, a novel by Kathryn Stockett, tells the story of African American maids who worked for wealthy white families in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s. One of the white women decides to push for a “Home Help Sanitation Initiative” that would require a toilet in the garage for use by the help. After all, she reasoned, no one should have to share a bathroom with blacks.

This racial segregation resembled the strict segregation between Jews and Gentiles as commanded by the Jewish law. But this separation was being overthrown in light of the gospel. In Acts 10, Peter had received a vision from God where all foods were declared clean by God. This vision preceded a providential introduction to Cornelius, a Roman centurion, who converted to faith in Jesus. Peter was strongly criticized for having eaten with Cornelius (a Gentile), but Peter testified to the work of the Spirit in Cornelius and his household.

What Peter learned during his visit with Cornelius, he seemed willing to put aside when confronted by certain Judaizers. At Antioch, he refused to eat with Gentile believers. Even worse, this decision was really cowardice, motivated by fear of what the advocates for circumcision would say about him.

The church at Antioch was the first of its kind: thoroughly Gentile and Christian. It was the first place in fact where followers of Jesus were called “Christians.” When Jewish believers had been forced out of Jerusalem because of persecution, they spread out into surrounding regions, taking with them the gospel of Jesus Christ. Upon arriving at Antioch, the word was preached to the Greeks. A church sprang up, and Barnabas came to Antioch and became the church’s first pastor. He soon called upon Saul to help him in the work of shepherding these new believers (see Acts 11).

At Antioch, Paul saw Peter’s refusal to eat with Gentiles as a serious threat to the gospel. He publicly called Peter a hypocrite. The intensity of Paul’s reaction to Peter derived from the impending danger Paul saw for the church if this teaching on circumcision prevailed and the separation between Jew and Gentile remained.

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Because Paul had a very clear sense of what the gospel meant, he confronted Peter, not about mere technical points of doctrine, but about something Paul saw as fundamental to the gospel. Paul feared that Peter’s decision not to eat with Gentiles threatened the gospel and would fracture the church. The gospel message is a message about the salvation of in-dividuals, but it’s also radical message of unity, bringing together all people who call on the name of Jesus.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 2:15-21
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing! - Galatians 2:21
TODAY IN THE WORD
In Jewish tradition, a meal shared together has been considered something sacred. The dietary laws of the Old Testament were a means to consecrate the table, the food, and the participants of the meal. For Jewish followers of Jesus who maintained many of these traditions, they struggled to understand how to share meals with Gentiles. The very act of sharing a meal with Gentiles required significant compromise with everything they had thought was important.

Jews who followed Christ were never forbidden to practice their Jewish customs. They weren’t commanded to give up the practice of circumcision or abandon all of their dietary restrictions. But it proved problematic that their Gentile brothers and sisters in the faith lived differently. One proposal, as we’ve seen from those belonging to the circumcision party, was to have all Gentile believers circumcised. Then, having received the sign of the covenant, these Gentiles could be considered full-fledged members of God’s family. That would solve the problem of sharing meals with them.

Paul diametrically opposed any such proposal! That’s not the gospel, he argued! We’re not members of God’s family because we follow the law, Paul reasoned. A new era has dawned. Jesus has come! And it’s faith in this Jesus of Nazareth that makes us members of God’s family. Gone are the old distinctions of “Jew” and “Gentile” (sinner), as if Jews have insider status and Gentiles don’t. And let’s face it, Paul noted: We’ve already all been eating with Gentiles. If now, for some reason, we pull away and refuse to, we only admit that we’re guilty of the very law we’re trying to resurrect.

What matters most is the cross of Jesus Christ, and because of the cross, Paul asserted that he lived differently. All believers live by faith in this Jesus and in the knowledge of His love and sacrificial death and resurrection. All followers must recognize the grace of God afforded through Jesus, so as not treat it as rubbish. If it’s true that Torah and circumcision make us members of God’s family, then Christ died for nothing!

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What does it mean in your life to be crucified to Christ? This process of transformation and surrender is never easy. But holding on to our way of doing things or our comfortable routines will cost us much more. Consider writing down the phrase, “God loved me and gave Himself for me,” and post it somewhere where you can meditate on it often. We can more easily let go of our false security and piety when we realize that we are embracing the redeeming love of our Savior.

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 3:1-5
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? - Galatians 3:1
TODAY IN THE WORD
Some churches prominently display a cross, often behind the pulpit or communion table. Other churches prefer not to display a cross, either to be less intimidating to newcomers or because they prefer not to adorn the sanctuary with any symbols. But whether a wooden cross hangs visibly or whether preachers simply proclaim the message of the cross, the death of Jesus Christ on the cross must be central to our faith. As John Calvin referred to such preaching this way: “When the Church has such painters as these, she no longer needs wood and stone, that is, dead images; she no longer requires any pictures.”

Faithful proclamation of the gospel will always include the message of Christ crucified. And that’s where Paul begins in chapter 3.

Paul reminded the Galatians that the gospel he preached to them was the message of Jesus who was “clearly portrayed as crucified” (v. 1). There’s no getting around the crucifixion. As we saw yesterday, if Jesus was indeed crucified, why then the need for circumcision? The letter then poses a series of rhetorical questions intended to reveal the foolish deception. Did you, people of Galatia, come to faith by submitting to circumcision (works of the law) or by faith? By faith of course! And now that you’ve begun by faith in the grace of God through Jesus, will you reject it in favor of human efforts? And have you so quickly forgotten all that God has done among you since believing on Jesus? Your own eyes have witnessed miracles. Has God worked among you because you’ve been circumcised or because you’ve believed?

Paul was trying to take the Galatians back to their earliest days of faith. There was every evidence that God was at work among them. God’s Spirit was active in their hearts and in their midst as communities of faith. Did that not validate the message that Paul had proclaimed to them? Did that not disprove the claims of the false teachers, who preached the necessity of circumcision?

APPLY THE WORD
Satan tries to persuade believers that their conversion has not been real. He wants to mire us in fear because it will paralyze our energy and sense of mission for God. Our first line of defense of course is the promises that we have from Scripture. But we can also appeal to the witness of the Spirit in our lives. When and how has He been present and active? Ask other believers to affirm how they see God at work in your life!

[Soldier4Christ]

Read: Galatians 3:6-14
He redeemed us in order that the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:14
TODAY IN THE WORD
Several years ago, model and actress Anna Nicole Smith died suddenly, leaving behind a five-month old daughter. What ensued was a public and messy paternity dispute. Five men claimed to be the father of Smith’s daughter—and they wanted a share in Smith’s potentially half-billion dollar estate.

In Galatians 3, Paul lays out an argument that answers the question of spiritual paternity. Who are the children of Abraham? Those who require circumcision have come to Galatia preaching that only the circumcised are the children of Abraham. The Gentile believers at Galatia have been made to believe that they are somehow inferior to the Jews or that their salvation experience has been incomplete. In addition to believing in Jesus, they must also become circumcised.

To settle the question of paternity and to disprove the claims of the false teachers, Paul highlighted the spiritual DNA of Abraham. Who is Abraham, and how do his children resemble him? Quite clearly, Abraham was a man of faith. There is no mention here of circumcision (which God did in fact give to Abraham later as a sign of the covenant). Instead, Paul focused on the faith of Abraham. He believed God. He would be the father to all who believed. Through him, all nations would be blessed. It wasn’t as if God promised certain things to Abraham and the Jews, and then, when they didn’t live up to His expectations, changed course and invited the Gentiles to join His family. God’s eternal purposes have always included the Gentiles.

Abraham is a man of faith, and his children are also people of faith. What Paul contrasts here is faith and law. Faith, rather than following the law, makes one a child of Abraham. Reliance on the law (which would include circumcision) invites a curse because the law demands perfect obedience. No one is capable of that perfect obedience, and we are all therefore cursed if we follow the way of the law. Faith points us to the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, whose death in our place ensures that all who believe in Him will inherit the blessings of Abraham.

APPLY THE WORD
We might consider verse 8 an unusual gospel pronouncement, since it makes no mention of the Messiah to come. Inherently, the most important blessing Abraham would inherit and pass on would be restored fellowship with God, and that happens through Christ. Yet the gospel means more than just the blessings we inherit. It forms us into a people who participate with God in loving and redemptive purposes to bless the world. Through the gospel, we become a blessing!