Once a week, a group of guys gets together and discusses things and new events that are going on in their lives. They pray for each other, encourage one another, and study the Word of God. They have started doing a study on Galatians, one chapter, once a week.
Galatians is huge! There is a lot of information in Galatians about being justified through faith, and not the law. It makes it very clear, that by observing the law no one will be justified. By trying to live your life by works and self effort, you fall from grace. It is by Christ we live and are justified by grace through faith in HIM. We have obtained His spirit through faith in Him. So many christians try to live "right" by the things they do, but fail to recognize that its not about the things we do which makes us righteous. There is no code, or list of things to check off in your life which sets you up for success. For if righteousness could be obtained by the things we do, then Christ died for nothing. He clearly chose to reveal Himself to us, to save us and make us holy in His sight. It is by our faith in Him that we receive His spirit, totally grace people. Nothing we do, or say can obtain this undeserved Love.
I want to hit on a couple things that stuck out to me(comment if you have anything else on this.) In Chapter 4 verses 21-31 Paul brings up Abraham and Sarah. He describes 2 situations and concludes with saying we are sons of the free woman. Well there is a ton of information on Abraham and Sarah, but in these few paragraphs, it deals mainly with their 2 sons. On one hand, you have a promise of God; things that are definite and true, and on the other you have self dependency; not knowing whats going to happen. God made a promise that Abraham would have a son, and through him, he would have as many descendants as stars in the sky. Well Abraham was a little over age, and so was his wife, so he had a hard time believing God. Well in Abraham's impatience(along with his wife's consent) he laid with their servant woman, and she became pregnant. She was a slave, she had nothing to do with God's promise. Abraham, in his human logic and thinking, thought that this might work out the promise. Well it didn't, and to this day there is constant war between the Jews and the Muslims. Abraham did have a son with Sarah, and he was the son of the promise. What's interesting to me, is it goes to show you that never by self effort can we work out our lives. It should be a full trust in the Lord, and dependency on Him to work out all things in our life. When we wait on Him, His promises become evident in our lives, and our fruit shows it. It's absolutely beautiful theology. It is Life.
In 2 Corinthians 1:9-10 It says, "Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will continue to deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us..."
It's all about Him, so let us continue to focus on Him and not ourselves.
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