All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 17: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works. ( II Tim. 3:16-17)
Paul presents three major themes in his letters to the assemblies in the various cities he visited on his missionary journeys---Faith, Love (headship/Body truth) and Hope. Paul’s letters are laid out in the Bible in doctrinal not chronological order. The Holy Spirit put the letters in the order in which they are to be studied rather than according to the date they were written. For each of these three themes, Paul wrote to three different assemblies.
1. Faith. For instance, Paul presents the doctrine of faith in his letter to the Romans. So Romans has been called Paul’s handbook on faith---what we are to believe, why we need to believe it. Next we see reproof to the Corinthians. These two books lay out exhortation for wrong behavior in connection with faith doctrine. Then Paul moves on and tells us about correction. He is still within the faith arena and now he follows that with exhortation for wrong thinking about faith doctrine in the book of Galatians---Paul’s handbook on grace.
2. Love. The next theme that Paul addresses is Love or Body doctrine. This is presented to the saints at Ephesus. That book is followed by Philippians where inappropriate behavior was taking place in connection with body truth. Two ladies in that assembly were having problems with each other and it was affecting the rest of the group. Reproof was necessary to straighten out misconduct in connection with body truth. And finally correction is necessary in Colossians to straighten out misthinking in connection with Body truth.
3. Hope. I & II Thessalonians, I & II Timothy, Titus and Philemon. Paul intends to give us instruction in righteousness.
Vs. 2…Paul says: "and all the brethren which are with me....?” Are you with Paul in his unique message of grace through faith? God is raising up Christians today who are beginning to grasp what Paul calls "the full assurance of understanding” (Col. 2:2).
“...God was In Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation” (II Cor. 5:19). God's part in reconciliation has already been accomplished through Christ and it is no longer the sin question but the Son question. If men remain unreconciled to God it will be because of their rejection of Christ and His redemptive work. It will be their doing, not God's, for in view of Christ's death God does not even impute their trespasses unto them.
Vs. 6-7…The apostle wrote these words to the new converts in the Galatian assemblies. You will recall that as soon as God began sending the message of salvation by grace to the Gentiles through Paul, some of the Jewish Kingdom believers at Jerusalem and Judea became concerned. They had known Christ only as their Savior King, because He was the Jewish Messiah. They observed the Law of Moses and the covenant of circumcision like Christ Himself had done. They visited Galatia and asked, “How can these Gentiles be saved and the children of God without submitting to circumcision and the Law of Moses?" They were so c concerned that groups of them traveled to the called out assemblies in Antioch, Corinth, and Galatia. They convinced many of the Gentile converts, using the Old Testament Scriptures, that it was necessary for them to keep the Law of Moses with all of its rites and ceremonies. The Galatian believers, it seems, had embraced this, and Paul had to send them an urgent letter to get them reestablished in the grace of God:
"Where is then the blessedness ye spake of?" In Galatians 5:15, it is evident that they had lost the "blessedness" and were fighting amongst themselves, "biting and devouring one another.” How did this happen? They had lost their "blessedness" by letting the legalizers from Judea persuade them that the grace of God and the finished work of Christ were not enough to save and bless them unless they added the keeping of the Mosaic Law. "Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain. I desire to be present with you now, and to change my voice [tone]; for I stand in doubt of you" (Gal. 4:10,11,20). He wondered whether they had really come to know the grace of God. Surely Paul could surely say of today's church as a whole, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel!” Even in Paul's own day departure from his God-given message of grace had begun. Only a faithful few remained steadfast. The majority returned to the message and program of a former dispensation, adopting large parts of it. It was a program contained in the laws of Moses and the Sermon on the Mount and it appealed to them because of the ritualism.
What did Paul mean by saying that they had been removed to "another gospel: which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” There are two different words for "another" used here. Some suppose that these Gentiles had accepted a spurious gospel which was not a gospel at all. But if this were so, would not Paul have said, "...another gospel which is not really a gospel at all?" He did not say that this new thing which they had accepted was not really a gospel. He said, "another gospel which is not another." The idea is that there was no contradiction between the gospel of the Kingdom and the gospel of the grace of God. The latter was simply a further development, a further revelation of God's truth from the one that went before. God gave the law to reveal what sin is and to show that man needed a Savior. Again and again the apostle made it clear that his message was not a contradiction of what the twelve had preached. Their messages were not the same but they were not contradictory. What Peter preached at Pentecost was true: he offered that if the Jews would repent God would send Jesus back to earth. There is no contradiction. When the Jews failed under the law, and rejected Jesus as King, God raised up Paul, the chief of sinners-saved him by His grace and sent him forth with a new and further revelation called “the dispensation of the grace of God.”
In Romans 3:31 Paul asks, "Do we then make void the law through faith?” By saying that salvation is by grace through faith alone, do we make the law void? Paul's immediate response is "God forbid: Yea, we establish the law.” The law was not given to help us to be good, but to show us that we are not good and need a Savior. Those who say that the Judaizers came to the Galatians with a false gospel are wrong. The trouble was not apostasy, which means rejection of truth formerly embraced, for these Judaizers knew and believed the Scripture and used it for their argument. Their problem was that they failed to recognize the further revelation committed to Paul by the glorified Lord. This was a dispensational error, for they sought to bring the Galatian believers who were saved under the dispensation of the grace of God back under the dispensation of the law. The Judaizers were not unscriptural; they were undispensational!
A major problem of Biblical interpretation comes from the belief that the Bible contains only one gospel. It is true that there is only one gospel for today. The gospel of the grace of God is that which should be preached. "Gospel" simply means "good story” and there are numerous gospels all through the Bible. In Galatians 3:8, we read that long before Paul was raised up to preach grace to the Gentiles, God "preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.” Now, was that not a gospel? If God told you that through you all nations would be blessed, would you not consider that good news? God's Word names various gospels: the gospel of the Kingdom, the gospel of the circumcision, the gospel of the uncircumcision, the gospel of the grace of God, and several more. Do you suppose God would have given these gospels different names if they were all the same? Why does the housewife label the items in the pantry as strawberry jam, grape jelly, stewed tomatoes, pickles, peas, and so on, if they are all the same? This is what people try to do with the "gospels" of the Word of God; they mix them all together. Then their message is just as mixed up.
Let’s examine the Gospel the 12 Disciples preached….Luke 9:1-5. Now turn to Luke 18: 31-34 and notice what happens when Jesus tells the Disciples about the death, burial and resurrection---“they knew none of these things”.
In effect, in Galatians 1:6-7, Paul says that the Galatian believers had failed to ask this question. They had been lured from the wonderful gospel of the grace of God to another gospel which had also been true, but which belonged to a former dispensation. It was still valid among the people to whom it had first been preached - the Jewish nation - but some zealous Jews were now perverting the good news about Christ for the Gentiles. We need to get into our hearts and minds the cause of God's and Paul's deep concern: the danger of confusing the blessed message of the grace of God with the messages and programs that belong to former ages.
Those who know the truth of grace but maintain silence because they want to avoid conflict, or fear men or "love the praise of men,"--- must set aside these selfish interests if the grace of God is to shine forth with any degree of brightness again.
We have been discussing God's revealed program for "this present evil age," the time of Christ's rejection and absence, and it is God's command that we make the message of His grace known to all men. The fact that "evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse” does not relieve us of this responsibility. Although the darkness may deepen, we are to "shine as lights in the world; holding forth the Word of life” (Phil. 2:15,16).
At first, God's grace was made to shine forth to all mankind in spite of the most bitter and Satanic opposition. But then the torch began to flicker and the world was plunged into the dark ages and hardly a spark remained of the once bright torch of grace. Then, after centuries, it was lit again and began to burn somewhat more brightly. In these critical times will you not make it your desire to know God's Word, rightly divided, and to make it known to others, until the grace of God shines forth again as a blazing torch? Will you not say with Paul: "But as we were allowed of Gad to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts” (I Thess. 2:4). Soon our Lord will appear in glory and our work will be done. He would have His grace appear through us now. "But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God” (Acts 20:24).
Vs. 8,9…The professing church to this day prefers forms and ceremonies, rites and rituals, to the simple, wonderful message and program of grace. They still proclaim the Law and the Sermon on the Mount, rather than the great truths of the epistles of Paul. And when we try to recover these truths for the Church, and show the difference we are often asked, "Do you mean that the Church has been wrong for 1900 years and only you are right?" It is not a matter of our being right. We are simply pointing out what the Word of God says. The Church today is no better than Israel of old when the nation kept departing from the Law of Moses as God had given it.
In Acts 19:10, we are told that "all they which dwelt in Asia heard the Word of the Lord.” A few verses farther on we find former pagans burning their books and idols and leaving their heathenism, "so mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed” as the Apostle Paul preached the message of grace. How greatly the Apostle was used of God in Asia Minor! Yet in his last letter, he wrote to Timothy at Ephesus, "This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me...” (II Tim. 1:15).
Men from Judea who had gone to Antioch, and then to Corinth, and to Galatia, to bring Gentile believers back under the law of Moses were called troublemakers, not only by Paul, but Peter also, and the leaders in the Jerusalem council. They wrote letters to the churches:
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