Author: emmanuelpcgateshead

SUNDAY 15^th

Ephesians 1:1-2

NIV (vv1-2) – ‘Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To God’s holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’

ESV (vv1-2) – ‘Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.’

We come today to the Ephesian letter, and boy oh boy, what a problem this is going to give me. ‘Why?’ you may ask, well put simply because this book along with the gospel of John are my two favourite books of the Bible, and somehow I have got to decide how to break it up and do it justice without spending too long in it! Not that I suppose we can ever spend too long in any book of the Bible, and however long I spend in it, I will never be able to give it the justice it deserves, but I need to treat it in the same way as I have with every other book.

This letter is all about blessings, prayer, grace, the Church / body, relationship, and strength. But more importantly is also about our being ‘in Christ’ and it is a letter that is all about Christ, in one of the Bibles I use (ESV the one I use most of the time) sometime in the past I have gone through all the letters from Galatians through to Titus marking out how many nouns there are referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, the  total for each is: Galatians 45, Ephesians 63, Philippians 46, Colossians 35, 1 Thessalonians 33, 2 Thessalonians 23, 1 Timothy 20, 2 Timothy27, Titus 7.

Sixty-three times in Ephesians and that does not include the many times where it says, in him, (six times in just 1:3-14) him, he, or his, referring to Jesus. This tells me that it is all about Jesus, and likewise when it comes to our faith and outworking of that faith it should also all be about Jesus, one of the more modern songs is:

It’s all about You, Jesus

And all this is for You

For Your glory and your fame

It’s not about me

As if You should do things my way

You alone are God

And I surrender to Your ways

Just as we see Jesus as the centre in this letter, so also he needs to be the centre of our lives, and just as all that Paul writes points to Jesus, so all we have and are should point to Jesus. May God help us to always keep Jesus as our focus, and I believe one of the ways that this will be ensured is that we keep close to the Cross, the place where we encountered the life transforming power of the gospel.

SATURDAY 14^th

Scriptures for today are found within the devotion

We are about to leave Galatians and move into Ephesians, in fact yesterdays devotion was going to be the last in Galatians, until I spent some time just reviewing it in my thoughts and decided to add in just one more.

As I reviewed the book and the various topics that come out from it, I was reminded of certain things that are essential to the life of the local Church and I will seek to sum them up here.

I will list them in an order different to how they may appear in the epistle and only a brief mention will be made for each one, these are some little extra bits of food for thought!

1) The importance of sound doctrine. Galatians 1:6 ‘I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—’

Paul is making this very point by the very fact that he is writing this letter to the believers, sound doctrine is essential to the spiritual health and well-being of the local Church. The whole thrust of the letter shows us how quickly the believers were being side-tracked because something was being taught that was not the true gospel. There will always be difference of opinion on what we would call the non-essentials of the Christian faith, but there must always be agreement on those things which are essentials, for example, the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because of this, the sound preaching and teaching of the Word of God is an essential part of Church activity.

2) The importance of the message of the Cross. Galatians 6:14 ‘But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’

I think that you have known me long enough now, even though we have been in lockdown for so much of the time since I arrived up here in the North East to know how important I believe the message of the Cross and the resurrection is to the Church, it should regularly be the focus of our preaching for without the work of the Cross we are nothing. Along with this is the reason why a regular coming together for communion, to share in the emblems together is important. It helps to keep us Christ and Cross centred. In fact, in this very epistle, Paul talks of the Cross life, ‘I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’ (2:20)

3)  The importance of belonging. Galatians 2:9 ‘. . .  and when James and Cephas and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given to me, they gave the right hand of fellowship to Barnabas and me, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.’

This Scripture is one that is often used in a service where individuals are brought into the membership of a local Church, the right hand of fellowship, signifying a joining together of individuals to a mutual cause, in this case the local Church. It is the sign that one on the one side has committed themselves to the local Church, that is for mutual support, encouragement and fellowship and the other agreeing party in this case the Church, welcomes the person into the local fellowship. I personally believe that being a part of a local Church is an important part of living out our Christian faith, and membership is the step we take to affirm our fellowship and agreement with a local Church which becomes our spiritual home.

4)  The importance of support. Galatians 6:2 and Galatians 6:10 and Galatians 6:6

‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.’

‘So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.’

‘Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.’

These three verses all in some way are referring to the mutual support and care that the members of a local Church should have for one another.

5)  The importance of being Spirit led. Galatians 5:25 ‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.’

Just as we need to keep in step with the Spirit as individuals, so we should also as a collective body of God’s people who fellowship together in a local Church, as we have been brought together because of the Cross, as we seek to be built up together through fellowship and the preaching and teaching of the Word, it should all be done through the enabling help and power of the Holy Spirit.

6)  I close with an important sixth point, no direct verse in Galatians, but we know from elsewhere in the teaching of Paul how important this topic was to him and that is the important subject of prayer. A local Church needs to be a praying Church, maybe although the word prayer is not mentioned, we can attach prayer to Galatians  6:2 ‘Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.’  For one of the ways in which we bear one another’s burdens is by taking each other to the throne of grace, in prayer to find help in time of need. ‘What a friend we have in Jesus . . . what a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer.’

FRIDAY 13^th

Galatians 6

NIV (v14) – ‘May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’

ESV (v14) – ‘But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.’

We come to the last but one of our devotions from Galatians, I trust you have been blessed in some way, speaking for myself I have really enjoyed looking through this book, it is possibly a book which I know so many selective verses from, but not previously spend so much time reading and studying and I personally feel the better spiritually for it. As I have immersed myself into it, the Holy Spirit has ministered to me. I have commenced reading a whole commentary on it, and already purchased another to be ready to read afterwards.

Paul has dealt with the issue he commenced with that the believers here had began to turn away from the gospel he had delivered to them toward another gospel, but in Pauls own words again ‘not that there is another’. (Galatians 1:6)

It was a very clear warning to the Galatian believers not to get caught out, not to fall into a trap, not to be deceived, but instead to return to the message of the Cross, which is that mankind is not saved by the law or works, but by grace through faith which is a gift of God. (Ephesians 2:8) Paul does not silence good works, rather he sees good works as an outworking of salvation not the requirement for salvation. Faith leads to good works, not good works to faith.

And after his discourse with them he ends by declaring where he stands, ‘Far be it from me to boast except in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ . . .’ He does not boast about how good he had been at keeping the law because he knew that the keeping of the law could never save him, he boasted in the Cross, for this is the power of God unto salvation. (1 Corinthians 1:18)

Even after we have come to faith we must never boast in anything but the Cross, we can so easily and quickly boast in who we are, what we are, even in what we are doing, although we are called to do good works, we are not called to boast or brag about what we are doing, we should always point to Jesus and the Cross and to his glory. In fact Jesus said himself that when we do good works (which God himself as foreordained for us to do) it is not to point to ourselves, look at me, look at what I have done, instead it is so that men may see our good works and glorify God in heaven. ‘In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’ (Matthew 5:16)

May we close our devotion by glorifying God for who he is and for what he has done, may we give him thanks from grateful hearts that he chose to send his eternal son into the world to redeem us, may we give thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ for his willing obedience to come and go to the Cross, the place where we are all made aware of our sinfulness and his holiness, the place where his power was unleashed to save and to grant eternal life to all who by faith would believe. Thank you for the Cross, Lord, God forbid than any one of us should boast, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is there and there alone that we die to the world, die to the flesh, die to self and walk in newness of life, walking and being led by the Spirit of God. Jesus keep me near the Cross.

THURSDAY 12^th

Galatians 5:16-26

NIV (v22) – ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.’

ESV (vv22-23) – ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.’

As we come to these closing verses of chapter 5, Paul changes his analogy from the law or faith to that of walking either the way of the flesh or the way of the Spirit. His encouragement to the Galatian believers was to ‘walk by the Spirit’ this was the antidote to gratifying the’ desires of the flesh’.

We know this portion so well, Paul gives a list of some of the desires of the flesh and delivers a stern warning in verses 21, ‘. . . I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.’ Today Paul would be labelled a ‘bigot’ for making such a statement, how dare he say these things, what right did he have to determine what was acceptable or unacceptable behaviour and even go as far as to suggest who would or wouldn’t enter the Kingdom of God. But the reality is that what he was declaring was true, it was not his verdict, but the very verdict of God himself. He was echoing the heavenly judge’s verdict, the one who will always act rightly, for all his ways are perfect and just. Listen to what Abraham says in Genesis 18:25 ‘Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ What about what Moses said in a verse I mentioned a few weeks ago, ‘. . . The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.’  (Deuteronomy 32:4) But what about this one, from the lips of God himself in Revelation 21, ‘And he who was seated on the throne said, Behold, I am making all things new. Also he said, Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true. And he said to me, It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.’  (vv5-8)

The ways of the flesh are repugnant to God, and so they also should be to us who have been born again by the Spirit of God. We have been set free, not to live according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, to live in accord with that which pertains to righteousness and holiness, to that which is considered morally right in an immoral world, in accord to the revelation of and the standard of truth found in the Word of God.

Sadly, we do fail, and it may not be in the areas that Paul has highlighted in these verses, it could be so many other areas where we so easily fall and fail. We need to cling to the Holy Spirit as a child would cling to his or her parent for security, for protection and for guidance so that instead of fulfilling the desires of the flesh we will learn to walk in the ways of the Spirit and to be led by the Spirit so that the fruit of the Spirit will become clearly evident in our lives as we sojourn as pilgrims in this world on the way to our eternal home, the place which has been prepared for all who love and look for the appearance of the Saviour.

I mentioned that today Paul would be considered a ‘bigot’ for making his remarks, but he was not willing to shrink away from the truth but rather to declare the whole counsel of God. And today we will also have ourselves labelled in so many ways or ridiculed as we stand firm upon the truth of the Word of God, and to be able to stand firm, we first need to learn to walk in the ways of the Spirit. For he is the Spirit of truth, and truth is what the world needs to hear, the truth concerning heaven and hell, the truth of the gospel message, that God the righteous judge is also a merciful and gracious God who has provided a way for eternal redemption through Jesus who alone is the way, and the truth and the life. And if my saying that makes me a bigot in the eyes of the world, then sobeit for it’s the truth that matters, it’s the truth that counts and it is only the truth that will last.

It is not my intention to deal with the subject of the fruit of the Spirit here, we will consider this again as a later subject.

‘If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.’ (Galatians 5:25)

WEDNESDAY 11^th

Galatians 5:7-15

NIV (vv7-9) – ‘You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you. A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.’

ESV (vv7-9) – ‘You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth? This persuasion is not from him who calls you. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.’

Paul uses v9 in another of his letters, 1 Corinthians 5:6  ‘Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?’ in 1 Corinthians 15:33 he writes, ‘Do not be deceived: Bad company ruins good morals.’

For over twenty years I was involved in paint spraying, cars, vans, buses, lorries, agricultural equipment, even steel frames for industrial and farm buildings etc. There was something I learned very quickly and it was this, you don’t open up any old tin of blue paint to paint a blue car, now that’s common sense to anybody, I didn’t really need to learn it, for we know that there are so many different shades of blue cars around. But what I did need to learn was that you couldn’t always just open up and use a particular colour of blue for a car, because unfortunately for many colours although there was a single common name, there were oftentimes many various tints of that colour. For example, Rover had a blue metallic colour that was called Azure blue. The problem was that this particular colour had many variants or shades, and you would have to check all the variants on the shade cards to determine which you thought was the correct tint and then prepare the colour to paint. This process was also important, because we used to have all the base colours which could be up to around 60 – 70 tins on a mixing machine and then we would mix the colour we wanted by adding various amounts of different base colours by weight. Sounds easy, but not always, for you only had to weigh one base colour wrong, even by a few milligrams and it would mean the final tint would be completely wrong, so imagine the problem if it was a colour like the Azure blue. If the mixed paint was wrong and it was used on the car, it would be like a patchwork quilt. Not to say expensive as well, to have to redo the job, fresh mix and a repaint. For this reason, at times it was much more economical to paint the whole side of a vehicle rather than to attempt to paint just a door. If you have not picked up on what I am saying, ‘a little too much of one base colour, spoils the whole mix!’ It becomes good for nothing.

This was the message that Paul had for the Galatians, they had been mixing the grace with the law, and in these verses as well the argument as to whether they should or shouldn’t be circumcised and it was all going awry for them. They were trying to add to the gospel and in doing so they were taking away its power in their lives. Instead of being firm in the freedom Christ had given them, they were slowly, by adding all the additions becoming enslaved again with the yolk of bondage.

Going back to my paint analogy, if the wrong paint is applied, the job is spoilt, ruined. And in Christ we have been washed in his blood, we have been made anew, we have been forgiven, restored, reconciled, we have been set free, as I mentioned a few days ago we have an incredible inheritance awaiting us, why on earth would we or anybody want to throw it away, ruin it, by allowing things to be added into our lives that would spoil the whole. Things that would taint the image of Christ that we should be displaying, things that would cause us to slow down or stop in the race that we are running, things that would cause the whole lump to be ruined, it only takes a little yeast, a little bit of the wrong paint mix, a little bit of bad company to spoil the whole.

Talking of colours, the Bible says, ‘Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.’ (Isaiah 1:18) David said in Psalm 51:7 ‘Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;  wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.’ Just as we have been washed in his blood and been made whiter than snow, let us not allow the white to be tainted, not to become dirtied or greyed, but let us keep close to the Cross, remembering that should we sin, (and we all do) we have an advocate with the Father, one who stands in his presence on our behalf, and if we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If I added a few milligrams of tint too much, there was nothing I could do about it. But, if I allow something to taint me here on earth, thank God he can do something about it!

Today Lord, purge us from sin and we will be clean, wash us so that we will be whiter than snow.

TUESDAY 10^th

Galatians 5:1-7

NIV (v1) – ‘It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.’

ESV (v1) – ‘For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.’

Within the context of this letter to the Church at Galatia, Paul is urging the believers on the basis that by coming to Christ and the message of the Cross they have been set free from the burden that the law placed upon them, and not to step backwards and become burdened again with the yoke of slavery by being bound once again by the law. I will try to illustrate it: as I have mentioned before, I grew up on a farm, a few miles out from the nearest town, (Hereford) and in those days we didn’t get taxied around, here, there and everywhere by dad’s taxi, if we wanted to go anywhere, we had to use our bikes or walk, and it wasn’t a straight forward flat ride, we had at least one steep hill to climb which made it hard work. When I was sixteen, I managed to buy myself a moped and what a difference that 49cc petrol engine made to my toing and froing. There was absolutely no way I was going to return to a bicycle, the moped had given me a new-found freedom that I never had with the bicycle. The bicycle was like the law, hard work, the moped was like the freedom in Christ, the engine was doing the work for me, in the same way that Christ has kept the law on our behalf.

Paul was telling the Galatian believers, ‘don’t get back on the bicycle when you now have a moped’. (I do not intend to sound disrespectful here – it is just an illustration) Enjoy the freedom – but, even though it was freedom that Christ had given them, it was not a freedom to do as they pleased, it was a freedom that was to be found by living in harmony with the will of God for their lives, it was a being released from bondage and slavery to sin to becoming a slave or a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What could be keeping us in bondage, maybe even in slavery to sin, we have known the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have had a setting free experience when we first came to Calvary, but somehow, we have slipped back or keep slipping back, you know the phrase, one step forward and two steps back, maybe an old sinful habit that we cannot quite throw off, maybe a sinful desire that keeps rearing its ugly head, and it keeps getting us tied up in knots, maybe it is the tug of some aspect of our old nature that is tugging us hard, pulling us back, we need to come back to the place of freedom, that is to the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ for the old sinful habit to finally be broken, for the sinful desire to be taken away and for the aspects of our old nature to be cut off so it no longer tugs at our soul.

Remember the Scripture in 2 Corinthians 5:17, ‘Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.’ Again without wanting to sound disrespectful, the bicycle has gone, the moped has come. Let us cut all our ties with the old nature off, with sin and its bondage and be set completely free in our being united to Christ and toward his will and purpose for our lives. To use another example, I really cannot believe that a beautiful butterfly would ever want to become a caterpillar again, and likewise with us, let us be determined to cling to the new and never to return back to the old. ‘For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.’

Can I add the words of Jesus here, if you are bothered with the cares of this life, cares that may be causing you to become spiritually weary, take his advice, ‘Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’

(Matthew 11:28–30)

MONDAY 9^th

Galatians 4

NIV (v5) ‘. . . that we might receive adoption to sonship.’

ESV (v5) ‘. . . so that we might receive adoption as sons.’

We have returned to the second part of yesterday’s verses as I had intended to cover this but got carried away otherwise. Christ came to . . . and in this space we could write down so much, for example, to save us, to forgive us, to reconcile us, to regenerate us . . . Paul says in this chapter to ‘redeem those who were under the law’ that in itself is amazing, but he continues ‘that we might receive adoption as sons.’

Today because of what Christ has done, we have been adopted as sons into the family of God. We can probably think of other Scriptures that remind us of this, such as Romans 8:15-17  ‘For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba! Father! The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.’

I mention this today to remind us of the difference between the law and of grace, under the law there is slavery, slavery to sin, to fear and bondage, under grace there is Sonship! That speaks of relationship, it speaks of family and fellowship, it speaks of safety, it speaks of a loving and a caring environment. It is no wonder Paul wanted to correct the Galatian believers, for by going back to the law they were throwing sonship away and who would want to return to slavery if you have been set free from it into sonship, sadly over the course of the history of the Church it has happened, as many who have come to saving faith have later on become entrapped again into the allure of the world and its pleasures and they have become slaves again to Satan. It is so important that we pray for the backslider, for the end for them is far worse than as if they had never believed. Hebrews 10:29 (As I have said on a previous occasion, I appreciate that there are two camps in regard to the issue of falling away from grace or once saved always saved, it is my personal view that it is possible to fall away, but at the same time I also believe that God can keep us from falling, but it is conditional on us keeping our part by walking in his ways and in a continual relationship with him through his Word, prayer and fellowship.) But I side-track, ‘that we might receive adoption as sons.’ I mentioned some of the benefits of adoption above, but deliberately missed out something important, the benefit of inheritance. Paul continues in the very next few verses with ‘so you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.’  We are heirs of the Father; we are joint heirs with the Son. Being an heir, is linked to the promises that God made to Abraham, as we read earlier in Galatians, ‘And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.’ (3:29)

It begs the question, what is our inheritance, to answer it simply, I would say it is everything that God has provided for us in Christ Jesus, some of which we partly benefit from now (Ephesians 1:3) but more importantly that which will we be ours throughout eternity. In the present the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance, until as Ephesians 1:14 says ‘we acquire possession of it’ which speaks of the future. Peter in his epistle says ‘Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.’ He then continues ‘For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.’ (2 Peter 1:11-12) It is Peter who also says, ‘Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.’ (1 Peter 1:3–5).

When someone inherits here on earth, it is whatever the benefactor has left or willed to them, it may be a house, some land, personal possessions, the problem is that sometimes it may even be the junk or rubbish, the possessions that nobody wants and needs to be disposed of rather than kept, when it comes to our eternal inheritance there will be no cast offs, no junk, no rubbish, it will be the very best, because it will have been given us by our eternal Father, he has already given of his very best, in sending his Son, the home he is going to provide us with will be of the very best, because it is being prepared by his Son, and all that we will have as part of the eternal inheritance will be the very best that heaven has to offer, because its eternal supply will be the eternal God himself.

What is our eternal inheritance, I will let Scripture answer, ‘But, as it is written,

What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him.’ (1 Corinthians 2:9)

SUNDAY 8^th

Galatians 4

NIV (vv4-5) ‘But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,  to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.’

ESV (vv4-5) ‘But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.’

The phrase ‘when the fulness of time had come’ indicates to us that Paul clearly understood that God had a set programme which he was outworking, especially regarding eternal redemption. We have recorded for us in Mark’s gospel account, ‘. . . Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.’ (Mark 1:14-15) and in 1 Timothy 2:5-6, ‘For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.’  We have also Romans 5:5, ‘For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly’ and  Ephesians 1:0-10, ‘. . . making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.’

God’s timing is always perfect, for we are reminded that all is ways are perfect and his ways are just. (‘For I will proclaim the name of the LORD; ascribe greatness to our God!  The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.’ Deuteronomy 32:3-4) And in his perfect timing he was faithful in bringing the promised redemption, which would redeem those who were under the law to receive adoption to sonship.

We continue in a similar vein as we have done for this is a continuation of Pauls correcting the Galatian Church. The law had its purpose, but now someone greater and moreimportant than the law had come, Jesus the Christ, the free gift of grace, he was born under the law, he lived to fulfil the law and he died to supersede the law so that those who were under the law might receive adoption as sons.

A fuller reading of the previous chapter, Galatians 3, implies many things concerning the role of the law in particular, we read in verse 19 that it was ‘added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made’, the ‘until’, is pointing to the fulness of time, when Jesus arrived and by his death and resurrection brought in a new and better way.

So in correcting the Galatian Church, Paul was wanting to instruct the members toward keeping the faith that they had responded to when the gospel had been preached, he wanted them to be aware that the mission of the ‘Judaizers’ was like a trap that would side track them from the truth of the Scripture which is that ‘the just will live by faith’, and he wanted them to U-turn and come back to the true gospel, which was the only gospel, that is that it is the Cross and not the law that is the power of God unto salvation.

Today there is probably very little chance of us getting side tracked with the same issues of the early Church in Galatia, for a start we have never been steeped in religious practise such as the Jews were, we haven’t come out of a system of sacrifice or of the requirement to keep every jot and tittle of the law, but there could be many other modern applications, where having come to genuine faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and knowing his saving power we can fall into. The trap of legalism, the trap of lukewarmness or half-heartedness, the trap of being allured by the pleasures of the world instead of seeking after righteousness, it may even be the trap of apathy towards the things of God, but it could also be through man’s invention where doctrine is distorted or skewed or misinterpreted leading to heresy and error.

I repeat as the other day the words of a hymn, Jesus keep me near the Cross, maybe as you are reading this you may realise that you are like the Galatian believers, you did run well, but someone or something has or is hindering you, come back to the Cross, come back onto the road that you know you should be travelling on, the path that is the path of righteousness, which leads up to God.

SATURDAY 7^th

Galatians 2:15-21

NIV (v16) – ‘. . . know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.’

ESV (v16) – ‘. . . yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.’

We return again to the same subject from yesterday, for we discover in these verses exactly what was the ‘other gospel’ that the Galatian believers were deserting Christ for, and it is that having accepting the gospel and receiving Christ by faith, they were being persuaded by the ‘Judaizers’ to return back to the law. In Galatians 3:1 Paul asks them, ‘O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?’  In chapter 5:7 he asks them, ‘You were running well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?’

The ones who had bewitched them and as a result who had also hindered them were those who were telling them that it was the law that mattered, and that they need to return to the Old Testament law of Moses to be right with God. And Paul is telling them that to be doing that was a backward step, because the law did not and could not save an individual, this can only come about by faith in God. The gospel is not about the law, it must always be about Jesus. To make his point he goes further back than the law, he points to Abraham, and tells them that faith is linked not to the law but to the promise made to Abraham which was that through his seed, all the nations of the world would be blessed. And we know, and the Galatian Church knew that that seed which would lead to the nations of the world being blessed was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And when God spoke this to Abraham, and Abraham responded by believing, we are told (and Paul re-echoes it) that Abrahams faith was counted as righteousness, it placed him in a right and perfect standing before God. This is found  in Genesis 15:6  ‘And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness.’ (and re-echoed by Paul in Galatians 3:6  ‘. . . just as Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness . . .’) So, Paul is wanting to steer the Galatians back from the law and toward Jesus and the Cross. He is not saying that the law doesn’t matter, he is not pushing it to one side and saying forget it, what he is saying is that the law will never save a man or woman, this can only come about through faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who has fulfilled the law on our behalf.

See if we were to be relying on the law for our salvation, and in our keeping of it, we would be useless and hopeless, for we would be constantly failing and falling, we would be seeking to work out our salvation, but instead we come to the one who has done the doing for us, and we come to him by faith, believing  and trusting in his complete and finished work at Calvary, simply to the Cross I cling.

In the same letter, Paul says that the law is like a guardian or a school master, (Galatians 3:24)  it helps us to see where we are going wrong, it is a moral and spiritual compass for us,  it helps us to see that we fall short of the glory of God, it helps us to recognise that we have transgressed and are sinners, but it can never save us, instead it should help point us to the one who can, and he is the one who is the seed of Abraham, he is the one of whom the angel said would be called Jesus, for he would save his people from their sin, he would be the one from whom out of all the nations of the world would be blessed.

Among many things we can learn from this today, to me the most important is that we must never deviate (or as Paul has put it be bewitched by others to turn away) from the Cross, the message of the Cross, and the man who hung upon the Cross, this is what we needed to hear and still need to hear and it is what the unbelieving world needs to hear.

This will lead us to where we will turn to tomorrow, Galatians 4:4

FRIDAY 6^th

Galatians 2:15-21

NIV (v16) – ‘. . . know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.’

ESV (v16) – ‘. . . yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified.’

I ended yesterday’s devotion with the words of Paul in Romans 1:17, ‘For in it (that is in the gospel) the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith as it is written, the righteous shall live by faith.’ In our text for today, Paul is presenting more of the same, the important truth concerning the gospel that a person is justified not by works but by faith in Christ, that is active faith in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ at Calvary.

Yesterday we also looked at the rebuke that Paul had given as a result of some of them moving away from the true gospel, and he continues his defence of the gospel through the verses that follow arriving to where we are today with what has become an important tenet within the Christian faith, ‘Justification by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ.’

The sad reality in Church history is that even though Paul had given clear teaching on doctrine concerning salvation, (and other doctrine) we find the Church soon slipped into error and eventually the influence of Rome which pervaded what was considered to be the Church. But even though the times were dark, the light of the gospel was not snuffed out, but it continued to flicker until we get to the 15^th and 16^th Century, where truth that had been hidden or suppressed became awakened by the fan of the Holy Spirit blowing into the hearts of men who became spiritually awakened themselves to the truth of the Word of God and they began to realise the error of the then darkened Church and among other things rediscovered the truth of this important Scripture ‘the just shall live by faith’ and as a result the time of the Great Reformation began. Men such as John Wycliffe (Oxford) and Jan Hus (Prague) had already shown dissatisfaction toward much of the practise within the Papal Church in the 1400’s, later men such as Martin Luther and John Calvin along with others also began to be dissatisfied with the practise of the Church and thus the light instead of flickering began to shine brightly again leading to the reformation of truth and the formation of the Protestant Movement, bringing the Scriptures to the masses and bringing about a fresh understanding of the truth, that man is not justified by works but by faith alone in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I am not in any way a specialist on the subject of the reformation, so I include what I have here out of my limited knowledge, but suffice for us to know that we are able today to freely give voice to the gospel and especially to preach, teach or share the good news that there is One who has done all that is necessary for us to come to salvation, one who has fulfilled the law on our behalf, one who willingly offered himself as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world so that we simply need to come to him and to be justified by faith through believing that he has done all that is needed to bring us eternal redemption. The words of one of the older hymns we used to sing and need still to be singing are ‘Saved by grace alone, this is all my plea, Jesus died for all mankind, and Jesus died for me.’ Words that echo for us the truth of Ephesians 2:8 ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.’