Read Reflect The letter to the Galatians is one of the first the apostle Paul wrote. It is his angriest. Angry? The apostle of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the world, angry? Very angry. Why? Because some people had infiltrated the church with “another message,” or, as he literally puts it, “another good news.” People […]
Read More sufficiency of Jesus’ death, anger, salvation, good deedsRead Reflect He who once persecuted the church became one of the church’s greatest theologians. Indeed, no one, except Jesus himself, has had a greater impact on the church’s theology than Paul. What caused the change in Paul? An apocalypse. That is the word Paul uses to describe his conversion. He had an apocalypse. In […]
Read More apocalypse, conversion, revelationRead Reflect No one else had had the experience the apostle Paul had. An apocalypse, a breaking-through-from-hiddenness by Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus. And then, years alone with the risen and living Jesus in the desert, as Jesus further opened up the gospel to him. What a fortunate human being! After those years, […]
Read More learning, wisdomRead Reflect There is no way to exaggerate the way the Spirit of God has used this text in the life of the church and world. For in it the gospel – the “no other gospel” – is stated so clearly. Peter knew the gospel. He knew that in Jesus, God has done everything that […]
Read More response, gospel, faithRead Reflect When we substitute anything or anyone for Christ, we supplant Christ. There’s no wriggle room in God’s story for any other perspective. Christ is all sufficient. To be a Christian is to believe that Christ, and Christ alone, is the substance and essence of our faith. He is our sole source of salvation, […]
Read More faith, sufficiency of Christ, SpiritRead Reflect Sin controls everyone (v 22), and obeying religious laws, rituals or rites does not put us in right standing with God. How so? If it were possible for us as sinners, through our own efforts, to attain the perfection required by God, then law-keeping would have been a means of salvation. Then it […]
Read More freedom, gift, law-keeping, salvationRead Reflect I was adopted into the family of God in the last week of November, 1979. It was phenomenal. By faith, I confessed my sin and asked Christ to be my Lord and Saviour. It still leaves me in awe. I was a child of the world, then God adopted me as his son. […]
Read More salvation, adoption, privilèges, inheritanceRead Reflect One of my great sadnesses is hearing about a friend who knows and is known by God, yet gets hoodwinked by false teachers and bound by legalism. It’s particularly painful and frustrating when the person used to be a member of a congregation where I was the pastor … making me wonder if […]
Read More legalism, counsel, enigmaRead Reflect There are many things in the Old Testament story that stand as symbols of things that would later come true. We call these symbols (persons, places, objects, or events) ‘shadows’ or ‘types’ of things to come. The story of Hagar and Sarah is a shadow/type of the two integrated topics in Galatians, that […]
Read More freedom, bondage, type, symbolRead Reflect What is the true meaning of freedom? Is it a right, the absence of constraints, or liberation from moral absolutes? For the Christian, it’s none of these. Freedom isn’t entitlement or self-indulgence. Nor is it a license to sin. Rather, it’s a sacred trust—a responsibility of the highest order. It’s doing what we […]
Read More self-sufficiency, freedom, independence, chains, inter-dependence