|
"To testify the gospel of the grace of God" TrustingTheLordGrace 101 Bible Studies |
|
Galatians Chapter Six
So when a person says “I sought God at an old fashioned alter” the bible says you didn’t. You can only come to God by faith and faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. You can’t go to some old fashioned alter and seek and find God. Salvation is by faith and it is always by faith in what God said, not what some man made up, or what some religious systems would have you to do. There is no merit, as far as God is concerned, in walking the aisle for Jesus, praying through at some old fashioned alter, joining a church, shaking the preachers hand or in any other religious activity.
Salvation is through the preaching of the cross. Paul says the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness.
1 Corinthians 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
1 Corinthians 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.
1 Corinthians 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
1 Corinthians 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.
So the things that look good in religion, the things that feel good to religious people, are not the things that result in a person being saved today. A person is saved because God provided the means of salvation. And that means is the death of Christ, on the cross, for your sins. Paul says:
1 Corinthians 15:3 For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures;
1 Corinthians 15:4 And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures:
When the cross of Christ is preached, people get saved. When religion preaches religion then you have a religion full of “lost believers.” You have people who believe in the name of Jesus and you have people who might even believe in the death of Jesus on the cross and they might even believe that he was raised from the dead. But they have never been told the truth of the gospel of Christ. That Christ died for THEIR sins, all of their sins and that he was raised again for their justification and that they don’t have to go anywhere, do anything or say anything, but simply BY FAITH put their trust in the fact that Christ did what he did and that he did it for them. That is salvation by grace alone through faith alone and that is the message Paul preached.
But in time past, salvation was NOT by grace alone through faith alone. In time past salvation was by faith PLUS works of faith. Some very good examples of that would be Noah in Genesis chapter six. Noah was “moved by fear and being warned of God, builded an ark to the saving of his house.” If Noah had not built the ark then he would not have been saved. That might be called a big example of works of faith. Here is a little one:
James 2:25 Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way?
Rahab the harlot showed kindness to the spies sent by Joshua to spy out the land of Jericho and she sent them out another way so that they wouldn’t be killed. Small work but still a work of faith. She tied a red cord in her window and when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down she was rescued.
The point, once again, is that all salvation is by faith, but not all salvation in the bible is by grace through faith. Sometimes it is by works through faith. In times past people were saved by the works of the law THRU faith. In other words, no flesh will ever, or has ever been justified by the works of the law because by the law is the knowledge of sin. But knowing sin because the law pointed out their sins, God provided the sacrificial system of worship as a means of a temporary covering of sins until the fullness of time was come. In other words, the blood sacrifices under the Law were a temporary atonement, a once a year atonement for PAST sins until Christ came. Christ said, in Matthew 23, that the weightier matters of the law were judgment, mercy and faith.
So Christ came, and the bible says, in John 1:11 that he came unto his own. In other words he came to Israel. He said “I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, in Matthew 15. The purpose in his earthly ministry was the redemption of Israel. His purpose in death on the cross was to redeem all mankind. But that was a mystery which was only revealed to Paul and Paul calls it MY GOSPEL and he says that MY GOSPEL is the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the “revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.”
Paul’s gospel was not preached in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and Paul’s gospel was not preached by Peter in the book of Acts. Nobody knew Paul’s gospel until the Lord revealed it to Paul in Acts chapter nine. Peter didn’t know Paul’s gospel until the Lord sent Paul, in Acts chapter fifteen, to “communicate it” to Peter, James and John and those in Jerusalem.
So the works of the law were very much a part of the message in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and very much a part of Peter’s message in the book of Acts. They were under the law, keeping the law, and zealous of the law. But Paul had received a message of grace by the risen, glorified Lord Jesus Christ and that is the message he had preached to the Galatians.
There is no record that Peter or any of the 12 had preached their Kingdom gospel and message in Galatia. As a matter of fact the indication is just the opposite. The indication is that when Paul went to Galatia that the people he preached to in the synagogues of the Jews had never even heard the name of Jesus and Paul had to first show that Jesus was the promised Messiah, the one written about, the one spoken about by all the holy prophets since the world began.
So Paul did that. He proved from scripture that Jesus is the Christ of prophecy. But he also preached total justification by faith alone in what Christ did on the cross. He died for our sins. He told them:
Acts 13:38 Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins:
Acts 13:39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses.
So Paul had preached, and people were saved, by Paul’s gospel. The Galatians had not been involved in Peter’s ministry, in the gospel of the Kingdom. Now, Kingdom preachers, Judaizers, had come to Galatia, probably as the result of persecution against the “church which was at Jerusalem.” The bible says that they were all scattered abroad, except the apostles. So someone had come to Galatia and were “subverting the souls” of the believers. They were doing it with “another gospel.” Not a false gospel, but another gospel, a different gospel. A gospel which belonged to the past and a gospel which WILL be preached again in the future after the church is taken out of the world, in the tribulation.
So the gospel of the Kingdom, the gospel of the circumcision, preached in the past will be preached in the future, and it is basically a tribulation message. A message of endure to the end to be saved at the end, at the second coming of Christ. This is basically Peter’s message, the gospel of the circumcision:
Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
Acts 3:20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
So Peter’s message is about the second coming of Christ but Paul’s message is about the going, the catching out, of the body of Christ and the two messages, the two gospels are directed at two different groups of people. One group is those of the past, those involved in the message of Peter, James and John, and also those who will be saved in the tribulation which is yet future.
But in between is Paul’s message and Paul’s ministry to the church the body of Christ. This is the most important division in your bible, between PROPHECY and MYSTERY. That which was spoken since the world began, about Israel, and that which was kept secret since the world began, about the church, the body of Christ. This is known as “rightly dividing the word of truth.”
2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
Religion today doesn’t rightly divide the word of truth, they wrongly divide the word of truth, or don’t divide it at all, and never see the distinction, so the result is a confused, a blended message. That’s exactly what was happening to the Galatians and that’s the reason Paul wrote the Galatian letter. So up to now we have looked at the first five chapters of Galatians and we have seen where Paul referred to the Law of Moses as a yoke of bondage. He told the Galatians to not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
He spends a lot of time talking about two covenants, and he uses an allegory to show the difference between the two covenants. He uses what happened in the old testament with Abraham, Hager, the bondwoman, and Sarah, the freewoman to show the difference between the two covenants. One is law, the law of Moses, and one is grace. So our study now comes to Galatians chapter six:
Galatians 6:1 Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Galatians 6:2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
Galatians 6:3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Galatians 6:4 But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
Galatians 6:5 For every man shall bear his own burden.
He says “bear one another’s burdens” and then he says every man shall bear his own burden. And he says “so fulfill the law of Christ.” Well, once again this disproves the false doctrine of anti-nominianism, the teaching that believers are above the law and live apart from any law. We talked about that in our previous study that there is something called “the law of Christ,” and there is also the law of human government. So believers do not live “above the law,” or apart from the law, but are under the law, unto Christ. As we have said before, the law of Christ, and you are in Christ by faith in the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, the law of Christ is love. Faith works through love. God commended his love to us, and Paul writes in Ephesians:
Ephesians 4:32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
The body of Christ is a spiritual body made up of all believers and Paul describes it as being “fitly framed together:”
Ephesians 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Ephesians 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Ephesians 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.
The “foundation” of the apostles and prophets in the passage is a reference to the gifts Christ gave AFTER his resurrection and he ascended on high and gave gifts to man. Those gifts were the offices of Ephesians 4:11 which are apostles and prophets, evangelists and pastors and teachers. And as we know there is a whole new group of apostles and prophets raised up to the church, the body of Christ. It is not a reference to the 12 apostles of the nation of Israel. In other words, not a reference to Peter, James and John. Some other people who are called apostles are Barnabas, in Acts 14, and Silas and Timothy in 1 Thessalonians. It’s amazing that most people in religion, including religious leaders don’t even know this.
But he says “bear one another’s burdens” and it has to do with someone who is overtaken in a fault. He says “ye which are spiritual” restore that person. Now there are two ways of looking at this and most of religion takes the first way and it has to do with that list of the works of the flesh we looked at in Chapter five. Most of religion has the idea that if you are “spiritual” then you are supposed to be your brother’s “fruit inspector” and when you go around inspecting their fruits and find some bad fruit, since you are so upright and spiritual that you are to help restore the person, but to do it in meekness and to be sure you are not tempted with your brother’s bad fruit. But I think the “burden” that Paul is talking about might be the burden of doctrine. You certainly wouldn’t want to be bearing the burden of somebody else’s bad fruit. The bad fruit could be the burden of verse five where Paul says every man shall bear his own burden.
So the first view, and a view held by most of religion, is that a man could be surprised in the acts of committing a fault. Supposedly he could be caught by somebody before he can complete his sinful deed or he could be caught by somebody before he can cover up his act. So you can see that this goes right back to those works of the flesh. People like to refer to Numbers 12:23:
Numbers 32:23 But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you out.
The context of the verse is that Israel would go armed for war over the River Jordan to possess the land. And it goes on to talk about building cities and folds for the sheep and so on. I don’t happen to think this is what Paul means in the passage at all.
Someone could be overtaken by the teachings of the Law, or by elements of the law. It is possible that they could do it without realizing it or knowing it. That is especially true in religion today since very little of what goes on in religion comes from the bible and most of it comes from denominational teaching and religious tradition. The earthly elements and emphasis of the law can be made very attractive, and a person could be taken unexpectedly by it, thinking that it is the truth.
How many people, for instance, do you know who walked the aisle for Jesus, or got water baptized for the remission of sins and numerous other things. All of them the things of religion and all of them consisting of some form of legalism, some form or some elements of the law. I think that Paul is talking about being overtaken by religion and religious practices, not about fruit inspectors.
Did you know that Paul is the only writer in the new testament to talk about “spiritual” believers. The word “spiritual” is used 26 times and 24 of them are by Paul. Paul says that we speak in the words which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual in 1 Corinthians 2:13. He compares spiritual to carnal and to babes in Christ and he says that if in man think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, that he should acknowledge that what Paul writes are the commandments of the Lord.
So what is a “spiritual” believer? Well, he has the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but all believers have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. So a spiritual believer is someone who is following the leadership of the Holy Spirit in his walk, in his Christian walk and his daily life. That’s one of the main subjects back in chapter five. That if we are led of the Spirit that we are not under the law and since we live in the Spirit let us also walk in the Spirit.
Walking in the Spirit is to NOT do religious things like try to live under the law. It is to NOT perform religious activities just because some religious organization practices certain things or because some religious leaders suggests to you that you should do it. To walk in the Spirit is to seek God’s approval and not that of religion. And the only way you can do that is by the doctrine. A person who is “spiritual” doesn’t try to guess whether God has made him a fruit inspector or not. A person who is “spiritual” knows that he is following the leadership of the Holy Spirit because he will study to show himself approved unto God and he will rightly divide the word of truth.
Galatians 6:6 Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.
The same ones who are “spiritual” in verse one are the ones in view here. They are taught in the word and Paul says let them communicate. The word communicate here means to share or to be a partaker of something. One of the main operations of the Holy Spirit today is instructing members of the body of Christ. He does that through the written word and through the preaching and teaching of others.
Instruction is done through the written word and through the spoken word. The Galatian letter is Paul’s first letter. He had not written any others before this one, and what they knew, they knew from Paul as he spoke and taught the word to them. Those who could remember what he taught were to pass it on to others and it is to be done in such a way that God gets the glory for it, not the individual or the religious system. In other words give God the glory he is due for what he has done. Paul wrote this to Timothy:
2 Timothy 1:13 Hold fast the form of sound words, which thou hast heard of me, in faith and love which is in Christ Jesus.
2 Timothy 2:2 And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.
In addition to the sharing of the word of truth, it carries the idea of sharing in other ways also. The one who is being taught is told to share with the one teaching. The word for communicate carries the idea of coming into fellowship, to become a sharer or a partner. Believers are commanded to support those who take a stand for Pauline doctrine. The implication seems to be to not share with the Judaizers and you don’t ever find Paul taking up a collection for the poor saints in Galatia, or in Asia, but you do find him taking a collection to the poor saints at Jerusalem. Here is another place where Paul expresses the same idea:
Philippians 4:15 Now ye Philippians know also, that in the beginning of the gospel, when I departed from Macedonia, no church communicated with me as concerning giving and receiving, but ye only.
Philippians 4:16 For even in Thessalonica ye sent once and again unto my necessity.
By the way, the Thessalonian trip Paul is talking about here is not the one in Acts chapter seventeen. In Acts 17 Paul worked with his own hands and would not be chargeable to any of them. So what he is talking about here is a later trip. I believe he is talking here about the trip to Macedonia he made at the time of Acts chapter twenty.
Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Galatians 6:8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
Galatians 6:9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Galatians 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Verse seven gives the principal of sowing and reaping, verse 8 goes into detail, sowing to the flesh or sowing to the Spirit and what the results will be and verse ten is encouragement to continue on and to do good at every opportunity.
Verse seven is a command from the Lord. Paul told them to stop being led into error, the error of legalism. It seems strange that a grace believer would have to be commanded to not be led away into the error of legalistic religion. Common sense seems to tell you that grace is far better than law, and good judgment, as in Phillipians 1:10, “approving things that are excellent,” it would seem, would show you that Paul’s message of grace is far better for today than the “yoke” that Peter said that “neither we nor our fathers were able to bear.”
So the blame has to go squarely on the shoulders of religion and religious leaders and the denominational system today. On people who wrongly divide the word of truth, because of advantage, and for the most part are following a doctrine based on a so-called covenant that is not even mentioned in the bible. The verse says “God is not mocked.” God is not fooled by the actions of men. He knows what’s going on. We are not puppets on a string, but when we are saved by grace God wants us to act like we belong to him and he most certainly wants us believe what His son from heaven has revealed to the Apostle Paul.
Now the “sowing” here is connected with the sharing. If a believer sows the word, he will reap the benefits of people being saved and of saved people being established in their faith. Another verse that carries the same idea is here:
2 Corinthians 9:6 But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.
Now if you follow the fruit inspector’s definition then the passage says that whatever a person may sow, as in committing sins, he will reap the terrible effects of sin. A sequence of events will have CONsequences, Or the Numbers 32 verse, “be sure your sin will find you out.” But whichever way you think Paul means it, you still understand that you reap what you sow.
Verse 8 is a two part verse. Because the flesh and the Spirit are contrary to one another as the passage back in Chapter five shows. In other words you either sow for the benefit of the flesh or you sow for the benefit of the Spirit. Here is the parallel:
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
If you persistently sow to the flesh you will reap corruption. Corruption is destruction or decay. In other words you wind up in a worse condition. Weary, worn out, exhausted. Sowing to the flesh, whether or not Paul is talking about the works of the flesh in chapter five, is most certainly the religious activity of trying to reform the flesh.
The flesh cannot be reformed and a person can spend a lifetime of religious activity trying to reform the flesh and in the end it reaps corruption. There is no benefit in dealing around with trying to reform the flesh. Instead of trying to change it the best thing a person can do is exchange it. And when a person learns to do that he will experience those rewards. Not only in the sweet by and by but in the good ole here and now. Peace with God is one thing but the peace of God is something else.
Now reaping life everlasting at the end of the verse doesn’t mean that eternal life is the result of sowing to the Spirit, because eternal life doesn’t come from good works but from the finished work of Christ. The wages of sin is death but the GIFT of God is eternal life and it is not of works lest any man should boast. The reward of sowing to the Spirit is the peace OF God in addition to having peace with God. That’s what Paul has in mind here:
1 Timothy 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Now he says to not be weary in well doing. It takes some physical effort, but more importantly it takes spiritual effort. That’s why Paul says “bodily exercise profeteth little but spiritual exercise, or godliness, is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.”
You may get discouraged but you can’t be defeated. Discouragement can be caused by sickness, a lack of money, or even what looks like a lack of results in your ministry. You can be discouraged by discord among believers and you can most certainly be discouraged by the old nature that is constantly pulling on you and telling you to quit trying.
Paul was concerned about the care of all the churches but he never gave up. God’s grace was sufficient for Paul and it’s sufficient for us too. Paul said I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith. And when he says THE faith it’s a reference to the faith in that message that was committed to Paul. Here and hereafter, we will reap if we faint not. But it is never a matter of the outward things. Each of us need to know that it is God’s grace that will get us through.
So he says “as we have opportunity, let us do good. In other words, sow and reap at every opportunity. There are times when we have opportunity to witness and we don’t take advantage of it. And that witnessing doesn’t necessarily mean a doctrinal dissertation. It simply means that there are times when we could and should put in a few choice words for the Lord. A few well placed words are like planting a seed. Our job is to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. Notice it does say all men and not just all saved men. There are millions of lost people out there and God would have them to be saved too, just like you and me.
Galatians 6:11 Ye see how large a letter I have written unto you with mine own hand.
What he is referring to is the large letters, the large size of his handwriting. So it is for sure that Paul wrote this letter, he was the actual penman. I think that the large letters pertain to his eye problem and I compare the verse with this one:
Galatians 4:15 Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that, if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me.
We call them capital letters but the Greeks called them “uncials” and they were about an inch high and they were formed individually, like printed, instead of the small letters formed in cursive or in running handwriting. I don’t think I would have had too much trouble reading Paul’s letter.
Why does Paul write in large letters? Well, if you remember in Acts chapter nine that Paul was stuck down on the road to Damascus by a blinding light, he said, brighter than the noonday sun and he was blind for three days. Well, was Paul healed, completely healed, when Annanias laid hands on him. I think the answer is yes. Well, why the eye problem?
I think that in Acts chapter fourteen, Paul was stoned by the Jews at Lystra and left for dead. I believe that at that time, when he was stoned in Acts 14, that he was caught up, as he later writes about in 2 Corinthians and saw unspeakable things. And as a result he was given a “thorn in the flesh” to buffet him. I believe, that the vision he had, the vision of the Rapture of the church and the huge scope that his ministry was to have, the things he wouldn’t even write about at the time of 2 Corinthians but which I believe he did write about later in the prison epistles, is what caused this “infirmity of the flesh.”
Because Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, was the spokesman for the risen Lord Jesus Christ, to him alone was given the message of God that is to be proclaimed to the whole world today. And the authority given to Paul is evident when he uses the word MY gospel. Not our gospel. Not the gospel. Not the gospel Peter preached in Acts chapter two. But MY gospel. Only Paul has MY gospel. No other writer uses the word or claims that his message is MY gospel. Paul’s gospel is not the same gospel as Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and it is not the same gospel Peter preached in Acts chapter two and it is not the same message as the message of Hebrews through Revelation. Only Paul’s gospel is MY gospel.
Galatians 1:11 But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
Galatians 1:12 For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul says things that you will never find any other writer in the bible saying. Paul said for instance, that it pleased God to reveal Christ IN me. He says:
2 Corinthians 11:10 As the truth of Christ is in me, no man shall stop me of this boasting in the regions of Achaia.
Paul’s apostleship emphasizes the fact that the risen Jesus Christ spoke through Paul. The bible evidence is overwhelming and the church needed to know that. To not know that would be to be misled by the other leaders with the TIME PAST message, the gospel of the Kingdom:
2 Corinthians 13:3 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, which to you-ward is not weak, but is mighty in you.
2 Corinthians 13:4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.
The church today needs to know the importance of the Apostle Paul and the message revealed to him, the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret since the world began.
In the last letter Paul wrote he told Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me and he told him the things which thou hast heard of me commit thou to faithful men. What the church needs is some faithful men who are willing to stand with Paul:
Philippians 4:9 Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do: and the God of peace shall be with you.
The religious system, the visible church, has miserably failed to live up to those words. Unspiritual leaders for over 1900 years have substituted Peter and John for the Apostle Paul. They have exalted Peter and belittled Paul. They have made Paul an also-ran and a “Johnny come lately” and because of it millions of believers have been misled in the churches.
There are some little words in this next verse that are critical. They are of extreme importance. Religion has gone to very effort to minimize these words and even eliminate them. They have made new bible versions and left the words out, in spite of the fact that these words are in every single Greek manuscript, including some of the ones not used by the King James translators:
1 Timothy 1:16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
To try to leave out, or obscure the truth that Paul is THE FIRST and THE PATTERN to the church, the body of Christ, is not only to pervert the word of truth, it is to CHANGE the word of God. The people who do that, and who have done that, WILL give an answer for it.
Galatians 6:12 As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.
Religion is all about a shew in the flesh. If it looks good, if it feels good then it must be good. But it is not God when you change the truth of God into a lie. It is not good when you trouble people and pervert the gospel of Christ.
The thing troubling Paul was circumcision and the Law of Moses. Today it is water baptism and religious rituals and it is no different. To make a fair shew means to put on a good face, a good outward appearance, to look well.
Now these Kingdom preachers believed strongly, and rightfully so, that circumcision and keeping the law of Moses was a part of their gospel. And it was. But it was ANOTHER gospel. Not a false gospel, because there is no such thing in the bible as a false gospel. There are false prophets, false witnesses, false brethren and even false Christ’s, but in the bible there is no false gospel. It was a real gospel but it was a gospel for a TIME PAST. It was ANOTHER gospel and it perverted the gospel of Christ committed to Paul.
When you believe that Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for all of your sins and there is nothing left for you to do in order to gain salvation or to keep salvation once you have it, then religion doesn’t like it. And they don’t like you when you believe that. And Paul says that all who will live Godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Where does the persecution come from. Not from the outside. It comes from within the religious system. It comes from people who don’t want to suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. They want to have their religious system and their numbers game and their gimmicks in order to count you and control you. But they don’t want to suffer for the cross of Christ.
Galatians 6:13 For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.
And that is exactly what most of religion is about. Glorying in the flesh. Making a show in the flesh. People who claim they are keeping the commandments are lying. They are not keeping the commandments because no man ever has kept the commandments and ever will. The commandments were a SCHOOLMASTER.
Romans 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Romans 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
The law was given to give people the knowledge of sin and to make them know they needed a Saviour. And once you are saved you are no longer under the law, there is no more need for the schoolmaster. People who claim they are keeping the law are hypocrites. Look at the case of Peter:
Galatians 2:11 But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.
Galatians 2:12 For before that certain came from James, he did eat with the Gentiles: but when they were come, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing them which were of the circumcision.
Galatians 2:13 And the other Jews dissembled likewise with him; insomuch that Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation.
Galatians 2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?
The gospel of the circumcision was a message for time past but it is not the message for today. Today’s message is a message of salvation by grace alone through faith alone, without the works of the law.
Romans 3:28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.
So like Paul said to put yourself back under the law is to be fallen from grace.
Galatians 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
In other words, circumcision and the law never justified anyone. And he says that circumcision doesn’t avail anything but a new creature. There was something new created at the cross and it is called the church, the body of Christ. The only grounds for glorying is to glory in what the Lord has done and not in what you and me are doing, or going to do, for the Lord.
The truth about the cross is in all six chapters of the book of Galations. In chapter one Christ gave himself for our sins, in chapter two I am crucified with Christ, in chapter three Jesus Christ is evidently set forth crucified for you, in chapter four Christ redeemed us and he redeemed those under the law, in chapter five the cross is offensive to religious people and here in chapter six Paul glories in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul’s preaching is the cross, the cross and nothing but the cross. He told the Corinthians that I determined to know nothing among you save Christ, and him crucified.
Galatians 6:16 And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.
Do you notice the two groups in that verse. Paul refers to those who are following this rule, the rule he has talked about all the way through the book of Galations. Those who follow “this rule” are those who are in the body of Christ. They have been baptized INTO Christ and have put on Christ and in this spiritual body there is no physical identity. There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female bond nor free. It is a spiritual body and a spiritual realm.
Yet, when Peter writes in 1 Peter he writes to a holy nation:
1 Peter 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
So I know that what Peter wrote was written to a holy nation and that holy nation is what Paul refers to here and he calls it the Israel of God. The point is that there is an Israel of God and there also is the body of Christ and the two are different. The worst blunder committed by religion is to claim that the church is Israel or that Israel is the church.
The two are different, they are not the same and to claim that they are the same is to say that you do not believe that God’s word means what it says, as it says it, where it says it. When God says Israel, he means Israel. When God says the body of Christ he doesn’t mean Israel. He means a joint body of believers who are not Israel and they are neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female. Things that are different are not the same.
Galatians 6:17 From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.
The marks of the Lord Jesus is obviously a reference to the suffering that Paul did for the truth of the gospel. Paul filled up that which remained of the sufferings of Christ. Sufferings abounded but so did consolation by Jesus Christ.
Galatians 6:18 Brethren, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.
Permissions:You may link to any PAGE and any file listed may be download. Do not link directly to downloads. Please do not copy files to other sites, since these files are often updated and visitors should have the latest version. Our thanks to 100% Pure Dave, HTML Kit, , Mozilla Composer, NVU,, TidyGUI, and Design by IronSpider