Part LII on The Study of Galatians

MANIFOLD RESULTS OF SALVATION
THE GOSPEL - Our Position - I Corinthians 15:1-4
JUSTIFIED - Romans 3:24
NEWNESS OF LIFE - Our Position - Galatians 2:20; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 2:5-7; Colossians 1:27
SANCTIFIED - I Corinthians 1:30
HOLINESS – Ephesians 4:24
GODLINESS – 2 Peter 1:3
FORGIVEN - Colossians 2:13-14
BAPTIZED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT (not with but rather by) - I Corinthians 12:13
GLORIFIED - Romans 8:17
INDWELT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT - I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19
LOVE – Romans 5:5
IMPUTED RIGHTEOUSNESS - Romans 1:18; Isaiah 61:10 (clothed with garments of salvation, covered with the robe of righteousness)
QUICKENED - New Creation (Made Alive) - Luke 15:24, 32; John 5:21; 1John 3:14
ADOPTION - Joint Heirs - Romans 8:14
TRANSLATED and DELIVERED from Power of Darkness - Colossians 1:13-14
RECONCILED - II Corinthians 5:18
ETERNAL LIFE - Ephesians 2:5-7


We always have to realize that these letters of the Apostle Paul stand in the center of our New Testament or New Covenant pretty much by themselves because this is the part of the Word that is directed primarily to the Gentile Church, or as Paul puts it, "The Body of Christ!" Which is made up of those who by the Spirit surrender their individual wills (old Adam life) and their bondage to the spirit (the prince of the power of the air, Satan) of the world to God. Never forget that the Old Testament and the Four Gospels and the early chapters of Acts were all directed to the Nation of Israel. But when Israel as a nation continued to reject everything and would not believe that Christ was the promised Messiah then God moved in providentially and took away their Temple, took away the city of Jerusalem, removed the priesthood and uprooted the nation from the land and put them out into the nations of the world in what we call a dispersion. It should also be noted that natural man (not filled with the Holy Spirit) has done great harm to God's Word because of what is said by Paul in, 2Cointhians 3:6  "Who also has made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the spirit give life." All who minister while still in the flesh only minister the letter and it is the letter that judges, convicts and calls for death of all flesh, self-will and the spirit of the world which rules from within natural mans being. For many there be that minister who are not approved of by God nor are they equipped by the Holy Spirit for this office, even though they may have been filled with the Holy Spirit at their conversion.




Now most of us when we looked at I and II Corinthians where Paul had to deal not only with problems in the congregation, but a constant flow of attack on his person. His enemies were always decrying that he was an impostor, and he had something that he had drummed up on his own. They would also say, that he did not have the authority from Peter, James, and John, so remember in those two letters to the Corinthians he was always having to defend his apostleship. Now in Galatians the average reader probably can't discern the difference, but in this Book he's not defending his person so much as he is his doctrine.



Now that's a word that we don't want any to use loosely. Doctrine is something that has pretty much, in our day and time, gone by the board. But listen if we do not have doctrine, then we have nothing. We're seeing so much today with the emphasis on "experience" and that's well and good as far as that goes, but listen experience does not set your feet in concrete. It takes doctrine, and that's the primary word as we're seeing here in Galatians. Paul in this Book is refuting false doctrine, or the teachings that had crept not only into the Galatians Churches, but every Church that he ever founded. This problem is not just unique to Paul's day, it has plagued Christianity up through the centuries, and is just a applicable and prevalent today as it was then when Paul wrote it.



Most congregations today are still teaching the false teaching of legalism, religion or a humanistic socialism evangelism. Normally when we think of legalism it is just simply the Temple worship, and Judaism but in a different style. No, legalism and religion come in all kinds of shapes and forms, and it's always so subtle. We see legalism and religion appeals to the human concept, "I have to do something!" And Paul's doctrine says, as we've stressed it over and over that, "we do nothing" "But we rest on and believe in only what God has said. That He has finished it on our behalf, and that of course is the Gospel of our salvation, and that is believing in your heart for salvation, that Jesus died for you, was buried, and rose again + NOTHING! (compare Luke 18:17; I Corinthians 1:30, 15:1-4, 22; Romans 10:9-10; 2 Corinthians 3:14, 5:17 and Galatians 2:20-21)