DAILY ENCOURAGEMENT 09-15-2014 WHO HAS BEWITCHED YOU? By Fred Trokie Galatians 3:1-2 says: 1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? The essential truth of justification by faith rather than by the works of the Law had been obscured by Judaizers’ who’s insistence that believers in Jesus Christ must keep the Law in order to please God. When Paul learned that this teaching had begun to penetrate the church at Galatia, and that it had alienated them from their heritage of liberty, he wrote his impassioned protest contained in this epistle. Today we see scores of believers in Jesus Christ who are attempting to live under the Law. They believe that God saved them, but in order to keep their salvation, they must live under the Law of Moses. Paul asked this question to these Galatian believers. Galatians 3:3 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? Paul asks them if they do not realize that their Salvation began through the Holy Spirit. It was the Holy Spirit that illuminated them to the truth of Jesus Christ and gave them spiritual life so that they might be saved. 2 Corinthians 3:6 says: Who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Galatians 3:1 tells us that these foolish Galatians had been bewitched. These Judaizers’ had aggressively persuaded them to start living under the Law. Living under the Law meant that they would be living under the power of the flesh rather than the Spirit. Romans 7:5 says: 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. Christ died so that we may no longer have to live under the bondage of the Law. He did not come to abolish the Law, but rather fulfille it. Matthew 5:17 NAS Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. Christ did what none of us could do. He lived His life under the Law, and perfectly fulfilled it, which qualified Him to be the once for all perfect sacrifice of God. Hebrews 9:24-26 says: 24 For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us; 25 nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world ; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. These Galatians believers has forgotten that it was God who saved them through the sacrificial death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4), and not by any works that they could have done. Romans 3:10-12 says: 10 As it is written, There is none righteous, not even one; 11 there is none who understands, there is none who seeks for god; 12 all have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one”. Our so called good works do not save us, nor do they please God in any respect. God has provided His own God works for us to walk in. Ephesians 2:10 says: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. These good works are the result of our salvation, and not the cause of it. These good works are only manifested when we are walking by the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23 says: 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control ; against such things there is no law. As believers in Jesus Christ we are no longer to live under the Law, which finds it source in the power of the flesh. Romans 7:6 says: 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter. Rather we are to consistently live and walk under the power of the Holy Spirit, so that we may grow and please God in all that we do. Galatians 5:16 says: But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. God Bless - Fred
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 22:57:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015