Epp, Theodore H. A Matter of Life and Death! Balanced and Blessed! Beware of False Peace! Boasting That Brings Blessing! Born Free! Can You Claim This Promise? Cast Your Vote for Victory!
Christ Eternal! Citizens of Heaven! Do You Have 'Pet Cares'? Don't Minimize God's Grace! Don't Rob Yourself! God Enjoys Giving! God Hates Sin! Do We? God Lives! Have You Looked in the Mirror? He Is at the Door! It Just Does Not Belong! Keep the Armor On! Keep Your Eyes Open! Make a Decision! One With Christ! Power for You-Today! Prices-or Values? Sealed and Sure! The Spirit Also Loves You! What Do You Believe In? When Is It a Sacrifice? Others were trying to pull them back into some kind of legalistic bondage.
Liberty is crushed sometimes even by pastors or other sincere people who in their zeal to have people follow what they think you have to, undermine you liberty in Christ.
Many Christians and even pastors feel the only way to control people behavior is to take away the freedom of God's Spirit and his grace. They believe the only way you can keep people from sinning is the law. Paul's concern with the Galatians is that, as believers in Christ, who had the Holy Spirit, they were considering turning back to keeping the law of circumcision. They were free in Christ to go live life, to serve Jesus, to love one another, without any kind of religious laws and they were considering giving that up!
The message in Galatians is a warning: Don't exchange the precious gift of the Spirit for legalism or law based living. What is Legalism? Legalism is any departure from trusting solely in Christ for your salvation and status with God AND any departure from living by the Spirit as the power of living for Christ.
You can recognize legalism by spoken or unspoken expectations or rules: Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, what Paul calls human commands and regulations, harsh treatment of the body, forbidding marriage, abstaining from foods, keeping days and weeks.
The focus is always on the external. Therefore, one of the marks of legalism is conflict with other believers over external things like, dress, and food, spiritual disciplines, over days and holidays. Paul denounces legalism for two reasons: One legalism, or restricting people's freedom in Christ, devalues the cross of Christ.
It fails to appreciate the total forgiveness, acceptance, the glory of our standing with God. It is a denial of the value of what Christ did for you!
Second: It devalues the reality and work of the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit you don't need to be under laws to please God. You want to! You are inclined to please him. The issue with the Galatians was circumcision. That can be said about a lot of external things that Christians get taken up with. Christianity is not outward imposing something upon yourself but it comes from the inside, from faith and love, placed in your heart by the Holy Spirit.
That is what controls us and urges us on. And the surprising thing is: Those who live by the Holy Spirit will soar to heights of love and service for Jesus that a law cannot produce.
We only thrive and grow and become useful to God, in this freedom in the Spirit. We only experience the joy and glory and dare I say fun of being a Christian when we are walking in this liberty. One: You are free to make choices without fear of being condemned by God.
Paul understood this when he said, "I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus Christ that nothing is unclean in itself. You can chose to drive a car or a pick-up or an SUV. This afternoon you can watch a basketball game or spend that time reading your Bible - and you can do both in the presence of the Lord, and be pleasing to the Lord. I have to know that I am as acceptable to God when I am eating popcorn tonight as when I am preaching his word this morning.
I am not saying they are equally important. In Romans 14, Paul talks about one man who is a vegetarian and another eats everything, one man considers one day more sacred than another, another man considers every day alike. While Paul clearly states that it is the stronger believer who has more freedom , yet he also demonstrates how two different choices can be made and both be glorifying to God.
Generosity is the principle of the new life but it is not turned into a law. Do I not have the right to bring along a wife with me, as do the other apostles, the Lord's brother and Peter. The other apostles did use that freedom to bring along a wife. Do you see the freedom of choice, for one to choose one path, for another to chose another path, and both are acceptable and pleasing to God.
You are free to fast from food for 3 days or enjoy the best thing on the menu at Cheesecake Factory. God accepts you in Christ either way.
You can take a vacation or not take a vacation. You can send your kids to public school or Christian school or home school. You can celebrate Christmas or not. In speculating men have gone far beyond the purpose of prophetic Scriptures. I believe that the most helpful way to study prophecy is outlined for us in Revelation " Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.
Nothing is said about speculating or prophesying. This book is by no means an exhaustive study of the great prophetic subjects. Rather, it presents a brief outline of things to come. The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light " Romans , To report a broken link or for other assistance please email us at: vwbutts att.
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