Logabe.
With right understanding and the grasp of the grace of God, your posts are dynamic and powerful.The present day club of law-keepers are subjects of the same confusion the Council of Nicea and the Romanish church fell to, the inability to rightly divide the word of truth, the Circumcision truths and the truth for today that Paul the Apostle received from the Glorified Christ. His place as the Apostle to the Gentiles is a point of contention in particular with the "club", as following Paul produces liberty in Christ and maturity in sonship. The Adversary has devoured many saints throughout the centuries with his masquerade, and will continue to do so wherever works are placed on par with grace and faith-obedience.I pray the Body comes to grips with this issue, and the "Judaisers" find their table becomes a snare.
fivesense
fivesence...I have some hope...thank God we agree on something.
I do appreciate and respect your knowledge of the scriptures and
I have learned some things from you also. Now it's time to make
you mad...just kidding.
In Galatians 2:11-13 Paul tells how he confronted Peter in his
hypocritical actions when the Judaizers came up from Jerusalem.
Peter did not want to offend the Judaizers, so he deferred to their
refusal to eat with "Gentiles," even though he had eaten with them
all the time without the knowledge of the Judaizers. Paul confronted
him and exposed his little secret to the Judaizers.
Paul explains the situation and sets forth his position beginning
in Gal. 2:14,
14 But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the
truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas in the presence of all,
"If you, being a Jew, live like the Gentiles [when the Judaizers
were not around to witness this] and not like the Jews, how
is it that you compel the Gentiles to live like Jews?
15 We are Jews by nature, and not sinners from among the
Gentiles; [Do I detect a bit of sarcasm here?]
16 nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the
works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we
have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by
faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law; since by the
works of the Law shall no flesh be justified."
Verse 16 is the core of the argument. It states plainly that there
is only one way to be justified before God, and that is through
faith in Christ Jesus. Paul makes it clear that no flesh is justified
by the works of the Law, and that all are justified in the same
manner. There is only one path to justification. This verse ought
to lay to rest any distorted gospel that allows for two methods of
justification. Jews are not justified by the Old Covenant, nor is
anyone else.
Paul's use of the term "Law" (at least in this particular context)
includes not only the divine Law itself but also the traditions of
men which misunderstood the Law. Paul was talking generally
of works as a means of justification. The Old Covenant said
"If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant,"
(Ex. 19:5), making salvation conditional upon man's obedience--
that is, not only his vow to obey but also his ability to keep that
vow perfectly. Paul's argument is that all have sinned, no one
has been capable of keeping his promise of obedience, all
have fallen short of the glory of God, both Jew and Gentile alike.
Hence, no matter what one's understanding of the Law is,
whether it be a true understanding or a mere "tradition of men,"
all have violated the Old Covenant, rendering it null and void.
The Old Covenant was a conditional covenant, one that
depended upon both parties (God and man) to fulfill their
promises and vows, in order to keep the covenant valid.
Israel violated the Covenant from the start, and even though
God was patient with them, His patience only served to give
the nation time to be totally without excuse. Time only proved
that the nation was irretrievably corrupt. So in discussing the
Old Covenant, Heb. 8:9 says, "For they did not continue in My
Covenant." In verse 13 the conclusion reads,
13 When He said, "A New Covenant," He has made the
first obsolete. But whatever is becoming obsolete and
growing old is ready to disappear.
So in Galatians 2, Paul does not seek to distinguish between
the true Law and the traditions of men as Jesus had done in
Matt. 15:1-9. To Paul, it was a moot point insofar as the present
argument was concerned. Regardless of any man's view of
right and wrong, all men have violated their own understanding
of the Law. All are self-condemned by their own standards.
17 But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we
ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ
then a minister of sin? May it never be!
When Paul says "we ourselves," he was continuing the thought
from verse 15, when he says, "We are Jews by nature." We can
then paraphrase verse 17:
"But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we who are Jews
by nature have also been found sinners [such as the sin of
hypocrisy], is Christ then a minister of sin?"
Keep in mind that sin is lawlessness, or the violation of the law.
1 John 3:4 gives us the biblical definition of sin:
4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness;
and sin is lawlessness.
So any time we read the word "sin," we can substitute its definition,
or equivalent, "lawlessness." A sinner, then, is a law-breaker, one
who violates the law. In the humanistic world, such a law-breaker
is called a "criminal." Sin is the biblical word for crime against the
law of God.
So Paul is saying in verse 17 above that if Jews--particularly
Christian Jews--are also found to be hypocrites, then it might be
asked if Christ is a minister of sin? In other words, did Christ
come to condone the sin of hypocrisy? "May it never be!"
The question Paul puts forth here is this: If we as Jews by nature
have accepted Christ as our Passover Lamb who justifies us
from sin, and then we are "found sinners," can we justify ourselves
by insisting that Christ now gives us a free pass to sin whenever
we wish? In other words, are we now allowed to sin that grace
may abound? (Romans 6:1). Having been justified by faith, having
seen our sins forgiven and cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, are
we now free to sin without consequence?
If anyone thinks that they have such freedom, they hold a distorted
gospel. Grace does not give us the right to continue violating the
Law of God. In fact, if you read Paul's dissertation in Romans 6, you
find that we should have DIED to the old man of sin. We ought to be
yielding our "members" (body parts) as servants of righteousness
(lawfulness), rather than allowing them to continue in sin as if they
are free to disobey God at will.
18 For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself
to be a transgressor.
Paul has not destroyed the Law. By faith he has identified with Christ
in His death and resurrection. The old man has died. The old Adam,
the original sinner, has been destroyed, and the life that he now lives
is Christ in Him. So we should understand verse 18 as follows:
18 "For if I were to resurrect the old Adam by continuing in
his lawless ways--whom I destroyed (put to death) when
I became a believer in Christ--I would prove myself to be
a transgressor (of the law).
19 For through the Law I died to the Law, that I might live
to God.
20 I have been crucified with Christ; and 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 delivered Himself up for me.
It is not the Law that died. It is the old Saul that died. When Saul
was converted, he "died to the Law" as a means of justification.
He found a new way in Christ. This new way did not kill the Law
or put it away, but satisfied its righteous demand by the life and
Sacrifice of Christ.
Logabe