The Gospel According to Abraham, Part Two

vs. 9: Those who are justified by faith are blessed with “believing” Abraham

vs. 10: Those who live under the law are living under a curse

vs. 11: Many today would have us to understand we are saved by grace and kept by works

vs. 12: Living under the law for salvation breeds self-righteousness

vs. 13: Jesus Christ is our substitute

vs. 14: The key is faith in Jesus Christ!

Justified, Alive and Set Free

Here’s the question.

How am I going to justify myself to God someday?

Do you think that you are going to stand in front of God and list off a whole bunch of stuff that you have done, and do you think that will get you “good enough” to get into heaven?

Or how about telling God that you have given large amounts of money to the church?

Here’s the secret.

Your answer will be nothing that you can physically do.

After Jesus died on the cross and rose again, the apostles wrestled between doing the Law, like they had been doing for many, many years, or having faith.

Paul helped the churches in that time to see that the Law only makes us realize that we can’t keep it. We need something else to cover our sins and justify us for heaven. That something is Jesus’ shed blood on the cross.

But how do you know that really happened? That’s where faith comes into play. Faith is believing in something that you can’t see. Paul used the example of Abraham and Noah. They each were justified by their faith, that Jesus’ blood would cleanse us of our unrighteousness, and make us, in God’s eyes, like we’ve never sinned before.

Today’s lesson from Galatians 2: 15-21 unveils to us the reasons that keeping the Law is not required for our own justification and cleansing from our sins.

Paul is Defending His Ministries

In today’s lesson, we begin to look at Galatians 2:1-10.

In the first verse we see that Paul goes to Jerusalem “fourteen years after”. In answering the question of, fourteen years after what, we compare the times that Paul visits Jerusalem in the book of Acts, and determine that Paul is referring to Acts 11: 27-30.

Also in our lesson, Paul defends his ministry by saying he was chosen by Jesus Christ.

At this time in the NT church age, there was a lot of questions about law and grace. What was still required? Did the gentiles have to follow Jewish customs under the law?

This time of transition for those first apostles teaches and reminds us how we need to be careful when listening to others’ legalistic ideas. Does something that we DO bring us to salvation?

And finally, we evaluate our own lives by asking these questions:
1. What is your ministry?
2. Is your ministry given to you by Jesus Christ?
3. Are you faithful in His ministry?
4. Will you remain faithful and committed til Jesus Christ calls you home or to another ministry?


Defending the Message, the Method, and the Man, Part One

In today’s lesson we look at some examples in the Bible of people who received grace through their faith in God’s word.

Noah and the ark, being compared to Jesus Christ, received grace by believing God’s word of judgement that was coming to the earth.

Paul also received grace when he believed God’s word concerning his own actions when he persecuted the church and Jesus Christ.

You too, can receive grace when you believe God’s word that Jesus Christ died and rose again for you.