"For I
through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in
me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the
Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. I do not set aside the
grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ
died in vain." Gal 2:19-21
These are words
that Paul spoke to Peter, who was being a hypocrite. What was Peter's
hypocrisy? Was he caught in some big sin? Was it that he had broken some
laws? No! Peter's hypocrisy was that he was living like a Gentile
(living without regard to God's laws - which Paul was perfectly fine with)... but yet he
was compelling Gentiles (those who never had the law in the first place) to live like Jews (making them keep God's laws)!
So Paul "withstood him to his face," because the very gospel message
that Paul was proclaiming was that "I died to the law that I might live
to God." "If all of this was about keeping God's laws," says Paul (in
my own words), "then Christ died for nothing! We don't live by God's
laws, we live by faith in the Son of God who loved us and gave Himself
for us, and in fact lives in us!"
Joel I delight in what God has shown you in His word...some of this revelation has never been spoken in my generation..My aim is not to flatter you or be a Joel groupy...I am just speaking from the heart to encourage you to keep running the race of Grace...when we buried my Dad the place was packed out from various nearby towns...he was a rural Presbyterian minister for 50 years..grew up in Traer, Iowa....at his departure service to Heaven he had desired to have read 1 Cor.15.10. ..which says "...By the Grace of God I am what I am. And I ran harder than all of them put together at once..YET, NOT I, BUT THE Grace of God with me...." I encourage you to keep becoming less and less Joel, that ALL Grace may abound unto you and redouble to God and the very very very special Body of Christ that is so needy of the Faith once delivered to the Saints to be defended by God's glorious Grace. .... johnpeter
ReplyDelete