Tag Archives: Galatians

Arts, Christianity, Culture

Saul stopped by light on road

Damascus, c. AD 35

(Acts 9:1-22; 22:3-16; 26:9-18; Galatians 1:13-17; Philippians 3:3-7)

SAUL OF TARSUS, self-styled persecutor of the sect of Christians, has stunned the Jewish community in Damascus by joining those he had come to arrest.

According to his own account, he was thrown to the ground by a light more dazzling than the noonday sun. It left him blind for several days. He claims it was a vision of the resurrected LORD Jesus, who told Saul to stop trying to destroy him and instead to begin serving him.

His companions also experienced the phenomenon, some seeing a light and others hearing a thundering noise. There have been no reports of unusual electric storms in the area.

Saul of Tarsus was an outstanding bright young Pharisee who stood head and shoulders intellectually, but not physically, above his contemporaries. A man noticeably shorter than average, he has an impeccable Jewish pedigree traceable back to the tribe of Benjamin.

He pursued Christians who had fled Jerusalem following the crackdown on the sect by the temple authorities. He carried papers authorising the fugitives’ arrest, although technically Jerusalem has no jurisdiction over synagogue affairs or members in Damascus.

After his experience, Saul was taken into Damascus. He recovered his sight after a Christian named Ananias laid hands on him and prayed for him.

Ananias was apparently prompted to overcome his fear of Saul’s intentions by a vision in which Christ reassured him that the persecutor had himself been arrested by God.

Following their meeting, Saul was baptised into the Christian faith and spent time discussing it with the church members. The church in Damascus is thought to have been formed by Christians from the Galilee area shortly after Christ’s death, before the Jerusalem persecution began.

The Jewish community in this Hellenistic city is sizeable, and Saul, his youthful zeal as strong as ever, launched straight into the synagogues in an attempt to prove to the shocked and sceptical worshippers that Jesus of Nazareth was the expected Messiah.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Freedom is a relative value

NEW TESTAMENT

– A narrative on Paul’s letter to the Galatians 3:23-4:7; 5  

We all remember the day we left school. Freedom! No more petty rules; you felt grown-up. Paul says that the person who trusts Christ is like someone who has left school. (“Put in charge”, 3:24, means literally a schoolteacher, or guardian.)

He also says it’s like a Jewish boy who’s come of age. There were no teenagers in the ancient world. You were either a child or a member of the adult Jewish community at the age of 13. Through faith in Christ, we have become spiritual adults. We can make God-honouring decisions without the discipline of the nursery.

Faith in Christ frees us from the prison of legalism (3:22,23), the impossible attempt to please (or bribe) God by keeping rules and regulations. John Wesley said of his conversion that he exchanged the faith of a slave for that of a son. He could serve God out of love, not out of fear.

The Galatian legalism had specific Jewish connotations, but we can become slaves too: to superstitions, fear of failure, and specific sins. Faith in Christ offers freedom and the dynamic to live wholeheartedly for God.

But there’s another side to it. “Freedom” was a watchword of the hippie sixties, when people tuned in and dropped out, abandoned taboos, and did their own thing. Echoes of that lifestyle remain. While the pull back to “slavery” is strong, so is the pull towards “lawlessness”.

Freedom in Christ does not give us the right to please ourselves and ignore the wishes of God and other people (5:13-15). We should not impose our “freedom” in such a way that makes others slaves to our whims and desires.

The message of Galatians is clear for today: we should let the Bible be our guide, we should trust Christ and not any of our own works for salvation, and we should live by allowing the Spirit to make us “fruitful”. Paul’s letter also encourages Christians to use their freedom in Christ responsibly.

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Arts, Christianity, Culture

Galatians: The heart of the gospel is here

THE BOOK OF GALATIANS

“Galatians”, the sixteenth-century theologian Martin Luther once said, “is my Katie.” She was his wife and this letter was his love. He lavished his attention upon it. Galatians focused entirely on the central truth, forgotten by much of Christendom and which was then being rediscovered.

It asks the most important question a person can ever ask: what do I have to do, in practical terms, to gain a right relationship with God? Paul’s answer is simple: nothing. Admitting there is nothing you can do and putting your faith in Christ, as the one who has already done for you everything that is necessary, is all you need.

Which is an answer few human beings except the selfish type can accept easily. We value our independence and our ability to look after ourselves. When we become dependent on others we feel worthless.

The Galatians certainly found it hard to accept. They wanted to work their passage to the kingdom of God, to pay their entrance fee into heaven. On his visit Paul had explained that the price had been paid already; they just had to get on board. But as soon as he left they developed a set of regulations (including male circumcision) which they insisted must be kept by anyone wishing to remain right with God.

That, Paul claims, is “another gospel”, a denial of what Jesus had done and the apostles had taught. So after a lengthy resume of his own credentials as a reliable teacher, he explains again what it means to be “justified by faith”.

It is the heart of the New Testament gospel, whatever Christian tradition you come from or whatever emphasis of Christian living you espouse. By understanding it, rejoicing in it and applying it to your worship and daily living, you will be able to enjoy the privilege of developing a personal relationship with the living God.

That explains Paul’s passion in Galatians. For him, as for Luther, this concept was his true love.

How To Grow God’s Fruit – a narrative

Galatians 5:16-26

YOU do not just pick berries off bushes and eat them. Some are poisonous. You need to distinguish between good and bad. Jesus usd that analogy in Matthew 7:15-20, referring to the black berries of the Palestinian buckthorn which, when seen from a distance, looked like grapes. Paul tells us how to “grow” good fruit: the genuine, visible product of our inner faith.

But he first warns us of what we know but which still surprises us: that we must expect a conflict (vv 16-18). Our imperfect human nature (some versions of the Bible use the word “flesh”) has been “crucified” with Christ (v 24), but it will not lie down. However, we do have the “new nature” of the Holy Spirit to counter it and conquer it.

Our task, Paul says, is actively to cultivate that new nature and weed out the old. Only God can make the fruit grow (another example of living by his grace through faith) but we have to prepare the soil by keeping “in step with the Spirit” (v 25): allowing his holiness to penetrate our lives.

It is not an option but an obligation. Bishop J C Ryle said in his book Holiness that “there is far more harm done by unholy and inconsistent Christians than we are aware of . . . They supply the children of this world with a never-ending excuse for remaining as they are.”

Christians are under new management. They have been given a spiritual make-over. But sometimes we still look a mess. Moment by moment, ask: what fruit should sprout in this situation?

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