Faith Joy & Coffee

“What purpose then does the law serve? It was added
because of trasgressions, till the Seed should come
to whom the promise was made; and it was appointed
through angels by the hand of a mediator”
– Galatians 3:19 –

Since it was clear that salvation is by grace and not by keeping the Law, another problem arose: why is the Law given? If the Law does not serve any purpose, neither do the arguments, because they were taken from the Law. Is it perhaps possible to understand the mysteries of faith logically?

Men create laws to amend laws, but God is not going to create a law that changes His promise. Abraham did not make a covenant with God; God made a covenant with Abraham. Paul revealed another wonderful thruth: God gave this promise not only to Abraham, but also to Christ, His Seed (Gal. 3:16). Already in Genesis, after the entry of sin, it was said that there would be a conflict between the seed of the enemy and the seed of the woman. Satan’s goal was to prevent The Seed, Christ, from being born into the world, for he knew that the Son of God would wound him in the head.

The law does not contradict the promise; it cooperates with the promise by fulfilling God’s plans. How does it do that? If life and righteousness could come through the law, Christ Jesus would never have died on the cross.

The law shows the sinner his guilt; and grace, the forgiveness he can have in Christ. The law is holy, fair, and good (Rom. 7:12), but we are wicked, unjust, and evil. Illegal us is trying to achieve salvation by keeping the law.

The tutor was the slave trained to care for and take his master’s children to and from school. He was the child’s teacher and instructor, a guide. The law is the tutor that leads us to Christ (Gal. 3:24).

A very well known writer summed it up like this:

We do not earn salvation by our obedience; for salvation is the free gift of God, to be received by faith. But obedience is the fruit of faith… Here is the true test. If we abide in Christ, if the love of God dwells in us, our feelings, our thoughts, our purposes, our actions, will be in harmony with the will of God as expressed in the precepts of His holy law (Steps to Christ, p. 61).

The woman who was found in sin was not condemned by Jesus, but forgiven. It was not through her merrits, nor because of her works, but through the grace of the Savior. Now forgiven and rescued, Jesus said to her, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11), thus maker her subject of the law.

The more grace we receive,
the greater is our commitment of faithfulness.

Be blessed, in the name of Jesus…

“Just as Abraham ‘believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness’ “
– Galatians 3:6 –

Paul balanced the sujective experience with objective evidence: We do not evaluate the Word by our experience; rather we judge our experience in the light of the Word. The apostle presented statements from the Old Testament to prove that salvation is through faith iin Christ, not by the works of the Law.

Therefore, he began quoting Moses in order to show that God’s righteousness was attributed to Abraham only because he believed in God’s promise. It was accounted to him; that is, his account received a credit of righteousness that paid off the debts of sin. The Jews were proud to be descendants of Abraham, but salvation is not automatically inherited. Gos has children, but He does not have grandchildren. We all need to be born as children of God.

Salvation was promised to all nations through Abraham, so Paul took that gospel to the Galatians: sinners are justified by faith, not by keeping the law.

Paul quoted Habakkuk 2:4 and said that “the just shall live by faith” (v. 11). The Holy Spirit inspired three books to explain this statement. Romans refers to the “just” as the sinner who is justified from sin (Rom. 1:17 and 6:7; cf. 3:24-28; 5:19; 6:7); Galatians teaches that the “just shall live” (Gal. 3:11), and Hebrews says how that will take place: by faith, and not by the law (Heb. 10:38; cf. 4:2; 6:1; 10:22, 38; 11:1).

The legalists wanted to appeal to the attractions of a religion based on the works of the law, while Paul showed the joy of a relationship of love and life through faith in Christ. If believers could exchange faith and grace for the law and works, they did not need to have fellowship with the Lord. For a true Jew, Abraham’s blessing came through Christ. For a Gentile, the gift of the Holy Spirit was bestowed through Christ.

“This matter arose because some false believers had infiltrated our ranks to spy on the
freedom we have in Christ Jesus and to make us slaves. We did not give in to them for a
moment, so that the truth of the gospel might be preserved for you” (Gal. 2:4-5).

Jesus suffered the utmost humilliation by being crucified to redeem us. Redemption meant buying a slave, not to own him, but to give him freedom. The legalists wanted to take redemption to the freedom of the child of God into slavery.

Perhaps there is some “bewitching” thought in your heart
or lingering around you that is not based on the Bible.
Paul alerted the Galatians regarding that, and also us.
Why choose slavery when we can choose freedom?
“You cannot keep birds from flying over your head,
but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair”
(Martin Luther).

Allow yourself to be guided by the Holy Spirit, you will be amazed…

“This only I want to learn from you:
Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law,
or by the hearing of faith?”
– Galatians 3:2 –

In the sixty verses of Galatians 3 and 4, we have Paul’s strongest message defending salvation by grace and justification by faith, warning and admonishing against legalism. His arguments were not half-hearted. His opponents had used every type of argument to deceive; he was going to use the full weight of truth to save. Paul presented the Galatians’ own testimony as an argument for the truth. They became believers when they saw the gospel and became foolish when they stopped looking at the gospel.

The key word in Paul’s question in Galatians 3:4:

“Have you suffered so many things in vain?”

The apostle had been with these believers in their first steps. He knew about their transformative experience and how they had come out of darkness into the wonderful light of the gospel. What is happening now?

The arrival of the legalist bewitched Galatians. Paul treated them as foolish, not in the sense of wicked, but in the sense of spiritually backward. Paul strengthened his argument by saying that they had seen the crucified Christ and had heard, believed, obeyed, and were born into God’s family.

As indicated in today’s verse, the mention of receiving the Holy Spirit appears eighteen times throughout the epistle. Was this reception by faith or by works? Of course, it was because they believed, and the Holy Spirit led them to Christ.

In the Garden of Eden was the tree of life. All the paths in the garden led there. Because of our sin, we lost access to it. When the cross of wood raised Christ on Calvary, like the old serpent in the wilderness, the hidden tree of life, and was seen by everyone. Today, there is only oone way to the tree of life, and that way is Christ. The Galatians foolishly looked the other way.

Which way are you looking? Please, look at the Cross.
“In the matchless gift of His Son, God has encircled
the whole world with an atmosphere of grace as real
as the air which circulates around the globe.
All who choose to breathe this life-giving atmosphere
will live and grow up to the stature of men and women in Christ Jesus”
(Steps to Christ, p. 68).

Let us all look at the Cross. Jesus is the only way, truth, and life. May God bless you today…

“O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you
that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ
was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?”
– Galatians 3:1 –

Chapter 3 of Galatians is biblical theology, pure and deep. Five themes stand out:

1. Paul is impressed with the foolishness of the Galatians in renouncing the gospel of grace and relying on the pseudo-gospel of salvation by works. We must flee at all costs from a religion based on merits for salvation (vv. 2-5).
2. Paul had been the bearer of the clear and solid message and teaching of the crucified Christ (v. 1). However, even so, the Galatians were turning away from those teachings. This shows that it is not enough to know and even have a deep content; it is necessary to submit our lives to Christ.
3. Salvation is a grace that is imputed to us. The faith shown by Abraham was credited to his account in heaven, taking away his debt, and God considered him righteous. Works had no relationship with having attained that favorable credit in the books of heaven. God simply offered him salvation, and he accepted it by faith, trusting in the fulfillment of God’s promise. His own efforts could never have bought that bessed state (vv. 6-18).
4. There are no favors with Christ. In the kingdom of Christ, all are covered by the same garments of Christ’s righteousness, received by faith in Jesus Christ: men and women, Jews and non-Jews.  It is enough to accept it and live by faith (vv. 25-28).
5. Whoever is in Christ is heir to the promises attained by Him through His death (v. 29). Living in Christ means living in the light of his teachings and understanding and reproducing in our lives, by faith, what He left us in His Word. However, what we live or the way we live has no saving merrit, for what saves us exclusively the grace of God.

The Galatians were bewitched. Paul wondered who bewitched them so that they left the truth and believed that we could be saved by merrits or works. People are bewitched by captivating looks. Serpents bewitch their prey, exercising terrorizing control. Some people are bewitched by the brightness or value of precious stones or a diamond. There are those who are bewitched by people and allow themselves to be attracted irresistibly. It can be for evil or for good.

Do not allow yourself to be bewitched by the old snake
who is ready to deceive and destroy.
Do not allow yourself to be bewitched
by the temporary sparkle of non-existent gospels.
Instead, let yourself be bewitched irresistibly by Jesus
and His grace, so that He may save you from all sin,
and you may offer Him your life in gratitude and commitment.

Be sober, be vigilant, be blessed…

“I have been crucified with Christ; 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 gave Himself for me”
– Galatians 2:20 –

The news covered the front page of one of Brazil’s largest newspapers: The State of Sao Paulo. Only one photo was highlighted in the March 25, 2017 edition, with the title “Her Heart Arrived.” It was the story of thirty-four year old nurse Fabiana Ebani, who had been connected to an artificial heart for fifty-one days while she waited for a transplant.

The news put an end to a wait that already lasted one year. On January 24 of the same year, she suffered six cardiac arrests, and the organ permanently stopped working. She had to be connected to an artificial heart that was designed to function for just one month, but Fabiana went far beyond that time.

The surgery was performed on March 1. The donation had to wait because the organs were not compatible, and the families did not agree to make the donation. In Brazil, just in 2016, 5,939 families were asked, but 2,571 (forty-three percent) did not give the necessary authorization for the donation. Two thousand people who were waiting for an organ died; of those, eighty-two were children.

Fabiana knows little about the donor of her heart, just that she was a woman about the same age as she. “It is very hard to think that someone had to lose her life for me to survive,” she said.

We too need a “heart transplant.” We do not need to be on a waiting list, and the replacement is always immediate. The transplant happens at the speed of surrender and with the intensity of prayer.

The stony, callous heart needs to be replaced by a heart of flesh
that is sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

When there is no sensitivity to the great works of God and the evidences of His love, when the gravity of sin is not felt and the guidance of the Word is not sought, when the urgency of salvation seems only theory or a necessity for others, then we need a transplant.

When you are excited about God’s miracles, when you recognize the works He has done in your own life, when you feel uncomfortable with sin, when you are hungry for the Word and cannot live far from the Lord; then you already have a new heart. “To have a change of heart is to withdraw the affections from the world, and fasten them upon Christ. To have a new heart is to have a new mind, new purposes, new motives” (Messages to Young People, p. 72).

How is your heart?
Jesus came to Earth to give the great news:
“Your new heart has arrived.”
The risk is already at its limit.
Why waith longer for the “transplant?”

How is your heart today…?

“But when I saw that they were nott straightforward about the truth of the gospel,
I said to Peter before them all, ‘If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles
and not as Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?’ “
– Galatians 2:14 –

An ancient African proverb says that “when two elephants fight, it is the grass they step on that suffers the most.” The confrontation between two giants who were servants and missionaries of the Lord leaves us several lessons to learn and incorporate into our lives.

Peter was a Jew who had accepted Christ by faith. God Himself had taught him in his encounter with Cornelius, as well as in the Council of Jerusalem, that no man was “common or unclean” (Acts 10:28) and would remain outside God’s call, as both Jews and Gentiles could be reached by the gospel. Peter had said at the Jerusalem Council that God “made no distinction between us and them” (Acts 15:9).

However, now he was making such a distinction; he even won over Barnabas and others. Paul resisted and rebuked Peter because he in no way accepted the fact that Jewish legalistic practices should be imposed on Gentiles. Paul’s words saddened Peter: “If you, being a Jew, live in the manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as Jews?” (Gal. 2:14).

Peter accepted the chastisement, and in writing his letter, said the following:
Interpret our Master’s patient restraint for what it is: salvation. Our good brother Paul, who was given much wisdom in these matters, refers to this in all his letters, and has written you essentially the same thing. Some things Paul writes are difficult to understand. Irresponsible people who don’t know what they are talking about twist them every which way. They do it to the rest of the Scriptures too, destroying themselves as they do it (2 Pet. 3:15, 16).

What powerful lesson can we learn from this?

1. Only through Christ and His sacrifice can conflicts among brethren be resolved. The cross nullifies pride, distrust, and selfishness. We are all at the same level at the foot of the cross.
2. Only when we recognize that we are dead to sin and alive for God will we admit that our enemy is not our brother, but our ego.
3. The unity of the church and the exaltation of Christ are above any personal idea.
4. Paul’s firm but kind and respectful way of defending the truth made it possible to exalt grace, restore Peter, and strengthen the curch.
5. We have to die to ourselves and live for God every day.
6. We can discuss ideas, concepts, and approaches, and then move forward together without the euphoria of winners or resentment of losers.

Remember that when two elephants fight each other,
what suffers the most is the church and the mission we have to fulfill.
Let us take care of the grass instead, that it may produce the best fruits.

May you be filled with the Holy Spirit today…

“Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas,
and also took Titus with me”
– Galatians 2:1 –

In chapter 2 of the book of Galatians, Paul makes reference to a journey to Jerusalem. The apostle tells us that Titus was not circumcised (vv. 6-10). Finally, he states that those who are justified do not live in sin.

Paul explains that there are not two different gospels, one for the circumcised and one for the uncircumcised. As Paul said in chapters 3 and 4, both Jews and Gentiles are saved by faith, not by the works of the Law. The message for both groups was the same; only the previous condition differed in those who were given the message.

We meet a Paul who resists Peter, because he had become reprehensible (vv. 11-16). What had happened? A decision had already been made about the ceremonies. As an apostle, Paul justified his argument of not requiring Gentiles to be the subject to Jewish ritual practices. Paul, Barnabas, and two other brethren were chosen to take the council’s decision to Antioch. Because Peter had been in favor of the decision and no doubt agreed with it, it would be difficult to say that there had been a controversy between him and Paul. They were in agreement, at least regarding general principles. This clear and unequivocal decision was the basis of Paul’s rebuke to Peter.

The way Peter, Barnabas, and other Jews acted caused confusion and division in the church. The rebuke was public because the offense had been public. Everyone, or almost everyone, was involved. Paul later wrote to Timothy, stating that a public rebuke for sin that is exhibited publicly is effective in deterring others from following the same path (1 Tim. 5:20). However, we must take something very important into accout: the one who is giving the rebuke is not just anyone; it is the apostle Paul, who is not a customary critic, but a missionary commited to the cause of the gospel.

And what was Peter’s attitude? He acknowledged his mistake and made no attempt to justify or excuse himself. This reaction is consistent with what would be expected of Peter after his great confession. It distinguishes him as a man of great spiritual stature.

The true gospel impacts both listeners and speakers,
sheep and shepherds. Paul’s preaching was also
the great theme of the Reformation.

“What is justification by faith? It is the work of God
in laying the glory of man in the dust, and doing for man
that which it is not in his power to do for himself”
(Testimonies to Ministers and Gospel Workers, p. 456).

Allow the Lord to do amazing things in your life…

 

“But I make known to you, bretheren, that the gospel which was preached
by me is not according to man. For I neighter received it from man,
nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ”
– Galatians 1: 11-12 –

Paul is going to defend the gospel, the only true gospel, comparing it to what the Galatians were trying to incorporate as another gospel. Let us look at the characteristics of the one and the other.

1. Characteristics of the false gospel:

• • It considers the death of Christ as being worthless (Gal. 2:21).
  • People must obey the law to be saved (Gal. 3:12).
  • God’s grace is earned by practicing certain rituals (Gal. 4:10).
  • It relies on obedience to laws to maintain a good relationship with God (Gal. 5:4).

     2. Characteristics of the true gospel:

• • It teaches that God is the source of the gospel (Gal. 1:10-11).
  • We attain life through Christ’s death so that we may die to sin and live for the Lord (Gal. 2:20).
  • Believers receive the Holy Spirit through faith (Gal. 3:14).
  • The only way to salvation is by grace of Christ received by faith. We cannot be saved by obedience to laws (Gal. 3:21-22).
  • Believers are one in Christ, without discrimination (Gal. 3:26-28).
  • We are freed from sin through the work of the Holy Spirit (Gal. 5:24- 25).

The Protestant Reformation elevated the true gospel. Swiss historian Dr. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, often quoted in The Great Controversy, wrote: “Early Christianity and the Reformation constitude one and the same revolution, produced at different times and under different circumstances.”

The five great pillars of the Reformation gave prominence to the one and only true gospel:

1. Sola Scriptura: The Holy Scriptures, inspired by God, are the one, unique, and sufficient authority in all matters of faith and practice.
2. Sola Gratia: Salvation is entirely by grace.
3. Sola Chritus: A single Mediator between God and men.
4. Sola Fide: Justification by faith alone is the central truth of Christianity and the true test of the gospel.
5. Soli Deo Gloria: To God be the glory in the chuch by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever (Eph. 1:6; 3:21).

The  road to heaven passes not over a toll bridge, but over a free bridge,
namely the undeserved grace of God in Christ Jesus.

“Grace finds us as beggars,
but it leaves us as debtors” – August Toplady –

Jesus, the only truth, way, and life… Seek Him today…

“I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one
who called you to live in tha grace of Christ and are turning
to a different gospel – which is really no gospel at all.
Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion
and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ”
– Galatians 1:6-7 –

Paul always expressed himself with joy and gratitude. However, this time, he was surprised that in a short time, some Galatians had abandoned grace and given up the gospel in order to accept false teachers. This was not a variation of the gospel; it was something entirely different. Fake dollars are not dollars even if they are called dollars.

The gospel had freed them from the bondage of sin, leading them to peace, and they gave up such a blessing in order to follow whom? To accept what? To follow Judaizers ad incorporate legalism? The Judaizers tried to discredit the message and the messenger in order to achieve their purpose. They accepted the grace of Christ, but they wanted to “improve it” so that it might be more spiritual and superior.

In the beginning, it was just an addition of rules, rites, and ceremonies, but in time, the addition became the only thing, minimizing the gospel to a series of legalistic rules that reduced the Christian faith to purely formal aspects of religious observances, practices, and obligations.

Nothing needs to be – nor can be – added to the gospel; it is already perfect and does not need to be improved. Either Christ and His grace are sufficient, or they are not. There is no middle road. They claimed to improve grace by elevating the law, and what they managed to do was invalidate the grace of the Lord.

In January 2020, the world was surprised that Megan and Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, decided to leave the British royal family. They have their reasons, but it never ceases to be intriguing that people find reasons to give up their royalty and lose a plethora of benefits, honors, recognitions, properties, resources, and so many other privileges.

However, sometimes we try to step aside as members of the Heavenly Royal Family so we can be independent and live by and for ourselves. It is not necessary to go to England or Galatia to find many who inexplicably give up the royalty of the gospel and set aside their royal membership, with all its honors and blessings.

What is even more puzzling is that they leave royalty to follow the baseness of claiming to be saved by the sum of their merits and woks.

“The greatest enemy of souls is self-worship,
which makes mans seek salvation in himself” – Spurgeon. –

We are members of the Heavenly Royal Family.
Let us not give up our membership, because
“how shall we escape if we ignore
so great a salvation?” (Heb. 2:3)

Our Father is the King, that means we are Royalty. May our Heavenly Father bless you…