Hey everyone. It’s good to have some new faces following my blog and studying God’s word as we travel through the Bible. The beautiful thing about studying the Bible is that it’s important to follow lessons given, lessons learned; for example where this lesson will take us today. You will see what I mean as we read on.
As we begin this study, we will begin in Galatians, chapter 4, were we left off in the closing moments of last week’s lesson. If you remember we covered the allegory that Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael, of course was brought about by the energy of the flesh. God never told Abram to have a child by the Egyptian servant girl, Hagar. But Isaac was the child of promise. So, all of that was really set up as I have said so often, everything in the Old Testament was for our learning. And here is a good example. Even though Ishmael was a child of the flesh for as Isaac was a child of promise, Paul comes along here in Galatians and uses the allegory that Ishmael represented the Law, which was fleshly, and Isaac, the son of promises, is indicative of the age of grace.
The very Grace of God based upon all the promises that he would form for a plan of redemption.
To refresh our memory, remember what it said back in Genesis and Paul is quoting it from Genesis 21:9-10.
Galatians 4:30-31“30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. 31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.”
This scripture is speaking of Hagar and Ishmael as the bondwoman and her son, and Isaac is born of the freewoman. Then when Paul says, so then, brethren, we…he is speaking to the Gentile believers up in Galatia who were being besieged by Jewdaizers that they could not be saved unless they also kept the Law; circumcision and all. Of course Paul screams at that; we cannot bring legalism into grace. So this is the reason for the allegory that just as surely as Ishmael had to leave the whole area. In other words I pointed out God doesn’t tell Abraham to build him a separate little tent next to his door so he could be in proximity. What does God do, he says cast them out, send them into the wilderness, so there was no contact between Isaac and Ishmael. So, the lesson is what we have to do with the Law (Legalism) and all its hideous forms, we have to totally be separated from it. We have to cast it out.
Then if you remember in one of my closing remarks was, after all, the Law was carnal, it was fleshly, and it was weak. I know that may not go down easily with a lot of people because we know the Law is spiritual, it’s perfect, it’s holy, but that is from God’s point of view. From man’s side, the law is what I just said.
Now let’s look within the same chapter 4 of Galatians. Where Paul writes to the Galatia believers, Gentiles now saved by grace, but were being tempted to go back under the Law.
Galatians 4:9 “9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?”
What is Paul talking about but the Law.
Now come back a little farther to Romans where you see the Apostle says practically the same thing in the important 8thchapter of Romans. Drop down to verse 2 and 3.
Romans 8:2-3 Remember always written by inspiration. “2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: “
The Law of sin and death was the Mosaic system. Look at verse 3, that is to show that the scripture tells us that when it came to the Law from man’s point of view it was weak, it was beggarly.
I’m afraid someone might say, well, that’s Paul. It’s sad to say there are people who do not like the writings of Paul. I’ve even heard shared that the letters of Paul shouldn’t even be in our Bible. I have had said to me directly, I will take Jesus’ writings over Paul’s. But listen, it’s the epistles of Paul that is the bedrock of our Christian Faith.
The setting of course, if I had time I would teach the whole chapter, so in short, Paul is up in Antioch, north of present day Beirut (corner of the Mediterranean Sea) where he has been ministering to Gentiles. Up in Antioch is where they were first called, Christians. When the Jewish believers down in Jerusalem got wind that Gentiles were being brought into a relationship with their God, they got all shook up. So they sent men from Jerusalem all the way up to Antioch to check out and see if this is really true. You mean to tell me this Jew, Paul, is permitting Gentiles to claim that they are saved without becoming proselytes of Judaism. Now if you doubt me, just read the first verse of Acts 15.
Acts 15:1,5,6 “15 And certain men which came down from Judæa taught the brethren (believers up in Antioch), and said, Except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”
Now that’s plain English. That is what the Jewish believer from Jerusalem was now trying to convince the Gentiles believers in Antioch.
Then jump down to verse 5, Paul finally gets down to Jerusalem where they’ve brought him down like a heretic to bring him on the carpet before the church there in Jerusalem.
Verse 5 “5 But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees which believed, saying, That it was needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
These Pharisees weren’t the self-righteous Pharisees that we are most acquainted with in the gospels. These were Pharisees that became believers, they knew who Jesus was, and that he was the Christ. But they are still Law keepers. They are still under that economy. Yes they are now believers, but they were also still keeping the Law. So they said it was needful to circumcise the Gentiles up in Antioch. And to command them to keep the law; it wasn’t just a suggestion.
It wasn’t that the Jewish believers said, now maybe it will help those Gentile believers if they keep the Law. They were being adamant. So these believing Pharisees’ come up against Paul and say, you have to command them to keep the Law of Moses.
Verse 6 “6 And the apostles and elders came together for to consider of this matter. “
There was a great controversy during this time, even though the scripture doesn’t say it; I bet it went on for the good part of the day. There was a tremendous argument between Paul and these Jewish believers in Jerusalem.
Paul kept saying, and you will pick it up in Galatians, chapter 2, read that in your spare time where Paul says,you CANNOT FORCE THESE GENTILES BELIEVERS UNDER THE LAW, THEY ARE UNDER GRACE.
Now Peter, I think he had been sitting in the corner all this time; hasn’t had a word to say. Where in early Acts, Peter is the spokes man; he was always the one that would speak up. But now Peter has been silent. Then all of a sudden, I think the Spirit of God wakes him up and look what he says.
Verse 7 “7 And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. “
Just as I said, they had been going back and forth. Look at the next words, Peter rose up. Where has he been? Well, he was sitting down. I think everyone else was congregating and having all of this up-roaring conversation. Peter was just sitting off over on the side taking it all in, nonchalant.
The first time Peter has spoken and he says, Men and brethren…a good while ago. Peter is referring to Acts 10, a good while ago was actually 12 years had passed. It had been 12 years since Peter went to the house of Cornelius, the Gentile, and he has not approached another Gentile since. Now he is brought up face to face with Paul’s dilemma, and God reminds Peter, don’t you remember what happened 12 years ago in the house of that Gentile, Cornelius? Now there is another good example just like I told you a couple of weeks ago, God sent Hagar back to the tent of Abraham and Sarah, just to go back through the same thing again 13 years later. Why? So we can have a New Testament lesson.
I think the same thing here. God wanted the house of Cornelius saved, but the bigger picture was that God had to prepare Peter for this event in Acts 15, to come to Paul’s defense and remember, yes, God did save Gentiles by my preaching a long time ago.
This is the sovereign God at work.
Again verse 7, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us (Jews), that the Gentiles by my mouth (the house of Cornelius) should hear the word of the gospel, and believe.
Then come down to verse 9.
Verse 9 “9 and put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. “
Don’t you think this was a touch thing for Peter to say? Peter was like every other Jew. He thought Jews were God’s own and the Gentiles were just dogs as yet who could maybe eat a few of the crumbs as the Canaanite woman asked to be able to do. But now Peter has to admit there is no difference as Paul has been proclaiming many years now. No difference between us and them.
Verse 10 Remember the Law was weak and beggarly, now look what Peter says. “10 Now therefore why tempt (test) ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples (believers in Antioch), which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
He is saying the law was a burden, a yoke around their necks.
Now let’s go back to Galatians 5, Paul uses the very same words. Its amazing how some people think they can still get to Heaven by keeping the commandments; doing the best they can. This is why; I am almost like Paul that I need to raise my voice to get people to understand, look the law was never given to save anybody, even the Jew that was under it.
Remember what Peter said in Acts.
Galatians 5:1 “5 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
Remember what Peter said, the yoke of bondage. Just as soon as someone says, I’m trying to keep the commandments, where are they putting themselves? Under the yoke of bondage.
Another scripture says, if you are going to keep part of the law, you must keep all of the law.
And if you are going to keep all of the law you better have a Temple, a Priesthood, an Alter, and a flock of sheep. But as soon as the age of grace came on the scene what did God sovereignty have happen to the Temple in Jerusalem? It was destroyed. Why, because the age of law had faded off the scene and grace came on the scene. So when someone says they are trying to keep the commandments, they are trying to resurrect that legal system. It is gone.
Now it will come back someday, but not until after the age of grace has ended. Sure Israel is all excited about rebuilding their temple. They’ve got all the clothes ready for the Priesthood made and hanging on manikins, all the utensils needed for the sacrificial worship, they have young men trained for the priesthood, they even have the red heifer isolated in the countryside on a farm in Israel to make the ashes and purify their new temple when it is built. It’s coming back, but the church has to go first.
But for now, we are not under law but under grace.
I haven’t got time to go back to Genesis right now like I wanted to, so let’s pursue a few more verses about the law. Then we will come back to it again later. Let’s look at Romans, chapter 3 where Paul for the first time makes the statement there is no difference between Jew and Gentile.
Now if you know anything about your Bible at all you will certainly realize that the mentality of the Jew all the way up well into Paul’s ministry and even to our own day to day the Jews thinking was they were the only ones that had access to God; and to put the Gentile in that same category with them; that was anathema. They couldn’t stomach the idea.
If you remember in Acts when Paul was addressing that huge Jewish crowd there in Jerusalem and remember a few moments before they were just about to kill him, by mob-rule. But the Roman authorities came in and rescued him and then he got back on a stairway and addressed them in the Hebrew tongue to get their attention. He rehearsed everything that had taken place in their Jewish history up to how that Christ died. Then he quotes Jesus a couple of times when he says, depart from Jerusalem for I will send you to the Gentiles. If you read what happens next, the Jewish crowd went into an uproar. If it hadn’t been for the Roman authorities they would have torn Paul into pieces. At that one word, Gentile. Now that was the thinking of the Jew.
Now here comes this little Jew, Saul of Tarsus who is now Paul, and he says there is no difference. Can you imagine what that did to Israel? Can you see now why Peter had so much of a problem with it? But Peter in his last epistle (2 Peter 3:15-16) just before he went to a martyr’s death he writes, even as Paul writes in all of his epistles in which are some things hard to understand. He says that at the end of his life. So you can imagine the struggles with it early on.
Now let’s look at Romans.
Romans 3:19 “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.”
Now of all the people of the earth, there was only one group who were under the law, the Jew. God didn’t expect the Gentiles to keep the law. He didn’t expect the Gentiles to have Temple worship. But, look what follows that colon (:), that every mouth may be stopped. Now it includes the whole human race. Not to go to heaven, but become guilty before God. Now that is not sending you to Heaven, it would send you in the opposite direction. So this was the only purpose of the law was to condemn mankind. To show man that he was a sinner, that he was not fit for God’s heaven. He’s a lawbreaker.
Verse 20 “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.”
Therefore, since the law was to do nothing but condemn, it had nothing in it to save, but to show sin. That again is plain English and so many people cannot see that. All it could do is show man how far he could fall short of what God demands in righteousness.
Verse 21 To close out this lesson. “21 But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets;”
That three letter word, BUT is the flip side. I am saddened to hear people say, well I’m doing what my church teaches or what my parents or grandparents taught. How many folks are going to stand before Christ, the righteous judge someday and they are going to say, but Lord, didn’t I do what my denomination taught? Didn’t I do what so-n-so said?
But you know what the book says, every person will be judge according to Paul’s gospel. (Romans 2:16) And don’t ever forget that.
We are not going to be judged on the basis to I was obedient to what I’d been taught, I did the best I could, but we’re going to be judge on what did we do with the gospel.(1 Corinthians 15:1-4)
Until next week, Maranatha.
Keep looking up.
Permission given by Les Feldick Ministries.
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