"Oh, Foolish Galatians!" Paul is in disbelief at the the level of unbelief that has seeped into the Galatian churches.Paul sees the bigness and urgency of the problem. Do we? The Galatians are not drug addicts, worshiping idols, or becoming secular. Rather, they are very religious. But they are …
Faith and works are not opposite extremes, with some wise road in the middle that we should walk. We either stand before God in faith, or by works. There is no middle ground. And Paul here reminds us that we can only be justified before God through faith in Jesus Christ.Faith is the opposite of …
As Paul contends with legalistic Jewish Christians -- who were requiring circumcision and other law acts for salvation -- he writes: "We didn't give in to them for even a moment." Yet the greatest mistake we could make as students of Galatians today is to think that because we don't require …
What are we meant to learn from Galatians? Some say the primary lesson is Paul's authority as an apostle, and that certainly is a clear and important point Paul makes repeatedly. But that is not Paul's chief goal with the letter. His main goal is that – by trusting the divine authority of Paul's …
The book of Galatians has been called "the Christian's declaration of independence." Paul writes the letter because false teachers were convincing Christians that salvation is not by grace, but through obedience to the law.It is perhaps not evident at first blush that Galatians is as relevant for …
As Paul shares his personal prayer for believers in the Philippian church, it is exciting to realize the opportunity we have to echo him! Roughly 2,000 years ago Paul felt impressed to make four specific things a matter of concerted, ongoing prayer for God's people -- in fact one of the most …
Jesus insists that anyone desiring to follow him must take up his or her cross daily. (Luke 9:23).While some days are more memorable than others, Jesus reminds us that every day of your life is important. Therefore, it is urgently necessary that we make conscious, careful decisions about how we are …
Discouragement is as common to the human experience as birth and death. Most of us experience a fair amount of happiness, pleasure, love, and hope. But all of us know what it is to suffer loss, disappointment, and heartache. Some pains are temporary and relatively minor, others are lifelong and …
The one thing more striking than Jesus' "I Am" statements followed by some metaphor of divinity, is when Jesus follows the statement "I Am" with nothing, simply letting it stand alone as a name-claim. It is a claim to be the self-existent, eternal, covenant-keeping God that in Genesis 1 created the …
The gospel is more than just information. It is big news of big joy! That's why Paul says angels desire to investigate the mystery of what Christ is doing in his church. It's not as though they don't know the story: they announced it on the day it began to unfold! But the majesty of the mystery, …