Galatians 3-4 Study/Psalm 32 (33) Study/Soul & Spirit-Closing Message-Peace be with you all...
GALATIANS 3 STUDY GUIDE & BREAKDOWN
THE LIFE OF FAITH IS IN THE SPIRIT-FAITH BRINGS SONSHIP
GALATIANS 3:1-9
3:1-5: The Galatians had believed in Jesus Christ-(v. 1) and received The Spirit through the HEARING OF FAITH-(v. 2): but they are foolish because they have rejected ongoing life in Christ and the Spirit, teaching instead that we are made perfect by the flesh-(v. 3)-circumcision: Paul argues they do not understand righteousness, nor how men always participated in it:
3:6-9: Who are the sins of Abraham??? Those who are of faith-(v. 7)-true Christians: Jews saw Abraham as their father: Paul shows that Abraham's righteousness-(v. 6) does not consist in keeping the law, but in believing God-(v. 9): Righteousness is a heart-centered belief in and obedience to God, with the blessing of the Holy Spirit:
ACCOUNTED-(v. 6)- In our day suggests keeping the books, ledgers, CPA's: To account here-(Greek- logizomai) refers rather to faithful participation: When God accounted Abraham righteous, Abraham was participating with God in the fruit of the Holy Spirit and faith-(v. 5):
WITH BELIEVING ABRAHAM-(v. 9) is literally in the faith of Abraham, that which he believed and did: This shows that Jesus' words-"if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham"-(John 8:39), UNDERSCORE THE FACT THAT SEPARATING FAITH FROM WORKS IN IMPOSSIBLE: To justify-(v. 8) means to make righteous and so to be righteous: Therefore, to be blessed-(v. 9) in Abraham is to participate with him, body and soul, in communion with God and His goodness:
FREE FROM THE CURSE
GALATIANS 3:10-14
3:10: While the works of the law are good, those who are the works of the law are cursed because they cannot become righteous by keeping the law: Even their own premise they fail, for no one has kept all the law:
3:12: The law is not of faith because the law came before the true faith-(v. 23): This is not to say that no one believed before Christ, or that the law cannot be obeyed out of faith: ABRAHAM IS THE FATHER OF FAITH!!! His faith was a type of the faith of Christ, for his faith is perfected in the faith of Christ:
3:13: Christ perfectly obeyed the Law and accepted its curse: In Christ, we are redeemed from the curse and participate in His perfect faith and obedience:
3:14: How is God's promised blessing obtained??? The Judaizers believed they were progressing toward perfection by obeying the law: Paul argues by contrast that the blessing comes through the promise of the Spirit through faith, a participation in the very life of God:
SONSHIP: PROMISE, NOT LAW
GALATIANS 3:15-18
3:15-18: The Jews were blinded by the multitude of details of the law: They failed to see that their sonship was founded on God's promises-(the covenant) made to Abraham-(v. 16): Since a covenant was confirmed-(v. 17) cannot be added to, changed, or annulled, the law, which comes later-(v. 17), cannot alter the covenant's promise-(v. 15): The Jews thought they were sons of Abraham-(seeds) through physical genealogy: They overlook the fact that SEED-(v. 16) is singular, referring to Christ:
THE LAW OUR TUTOR
GALATIANS 3:19-25
3:19: Why was THE LAW given then??? Israel was transgressing what they knew of God's law through conscience and nature: So God put in writing!!! The Law was never a savior, but a tutor-(v. 24) to convict Israel of TRANSGRESSIONS and to lead her to Christ:
3:20: For Christ to be the Mediator between God and man-(see also 1 Timothy 2:5), He had to be both God and man: God is one is a reference to the one divine nature and does not deny the existence of three divine Persons: (Priests, by the law, are not seen as mediators between God and man; their role is to lead people to the Mediator...)
3:22-25: FAITH IN-(v. 22) should be translated "FAITH OF": TWO FAITHS ARE COOPERATING: first and foremost, Christ's faith; secondarily, the faith of those who believe: While OT people had faith, they could not participate in Christ's faith, for Christ had not yet come:
SONSHIP BY FAITH AND BAPTISM
GALATIANS 3:26-29
3:26-27: Paul directly relates saving faith-(v. 26) and being baptized, connecting them as the most intimate of friends: Verse 27 is the ancient hymn perhaps already being sung at Christian baptism during the procession of the newly regenerated into the assembly-and sung at every Orthodox baptismal service to this day:
3:28-29: We share one human nature in Christ: Therefore, valuing people based on opinions and ethnicity-(neither Jew nor Greek), pride and social status-(neither slave nor free), or gender-(neither male nor female) has no place in the Church: All are one in nature, and so all are equal in dignity:
GALATIANS 4 STUDY GUIDE & BREAKDOWN
SONS OF GOD THROUGH CHRIST AND THE SPIRIT
GALATIANS 4:1-7
4:1-2: CHILD refers not to age but to understanding: Guardians and stewards provide the special discipline and protection required for growth: Slave refers to one under rule of a taskmaster, in this case, the law:
4:3: THE ELEMENTS OF THE WORLD are the philosophies and traditions developed by humanity without regard to God-(Colossians 2:8):
4:4-5: Son refers to Christ as the God by Nature: See my Video for further discussion:
4:6-7: The ongoing growth into adoption, being an heir of God-(v. 7), is called DEIFICATION- This means we are becoming by grace what God is by nature:
THE DANGER OF THE LAW
GALATIANS 4:8-20
4:10: The Judaizers were making their holy-day calendar an end in itself: See VIDEO further discussion:
4:13: THE NATURE of Paul's physical infirmity is not known: Maybe it was sufferings of his work for the gospel???
4:14-19: THE ANGEL OF GOD in the OT was a pre-incarnate appearance-(THEOPHANY) of the Son, whom we know as CHRIST JESUS: A Priest in the Church called to be a manifestation of Christ and is to be received as Christ, but he is neither identical with Christ nor a mediator between a Christian and Christ: He must both win the love of his people-(v. 15) and adamantly confront bad behavior and wrong belief-(vv. 16-18): A true priest seeks spiritual growth, deification, for his people-(v. 19), even if his people do not want the truth-(v. 16):
4:21-31: BY SAYING THAT ABRAHAM'S two sons and related events are symbolic-(v. 24, Greek- allegoreo): Paul is not implying that they are not historical: Rather he asserts that OT history is announcing something far greater than itself: HAGAR AND MOUNT SINAI symbolizes earthly JERUSALEM and the Jews under the law-(v. 25): Sarah, the freewoman-( vv. 22, 23), symbolizes the heavenly Jerusalem, that is, the Church-(v. 26): THE DESOLATE are those in the Church, especially the Gentiles; she who has a husband is Israel-(v. 27): Furthermore, Sarah is a type of Mary, THE MOTHER OF GOD, for Sarah's son was born THROUGH PROMISE-(v. 23), the promise of God: SEE VIDEO for further discussion...
-Read from section back in Chapter as part of further summary through 4:31 here in Galatians- see VIDEO for more discussion...
PSALM 32 (33) STUDY GUIDE & BREAKDOWN
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+33&version=NKJV
-reading from the Bible-see video
SOUL- A living substance, simple, bodiless, and invisible by NATURE, activating the body to which it brings life, growth, sensation and reproduction: The mind is not distinct from the soul but serves as a window to the soul: The soul is free, endowed with will, and soul is created by God in HIS IMAGE: The soul of man will never die-(Genesis 1:26; and Genesis 2:7; Matthew 10:28):
SPIRIT- (Greek- pneuma) Literally, "BREATH"; that which is living but immaterial: Spirit is used in three ways in Scripture: (1): THE HOLY SPIRIT is one of THREE PERSONS OF THE TRINITY-(JOHN 4:24; AND JOHN 20:22); (2): THE ANGELS are called spirits-(PSALM 103:4); AND (3): AND THE HUMAN SPIRIT possesses the intuitive ability to know and experience God-(ROMANS 8:16; 1 CORINTHIANS 2:10-12): "A walk in the spirit comes from life in the spirit." (Galatians 5:25)
MATTHEW 5:9
Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.
GO OUT BE PEACEMAKERS!!!
1 TIMOTHY 2:1
Therefore I [a]exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
PRAY FOR ALL- AND CONTINUE TO PRAY WITHOUT CEASING-EVEN PRAY FOR ALL ENEMIES!!!
MAY THE LORD FORGIVE THOSE WHO HATE US AND THOSE WHO LOVE US!!!