Today’s Galatians Text is short, but revealing!

Paul affirms: “I do not frustrate the grace of God.”(Galatians 2:21, really Galatians 2:21a)

And by “grace” here (in Greek “charis”) he means God’s “free gift” of salvation. Salvation bestowed “without human works.”

Salvation apart from obeying the Law of Moses, as a requirement!

The verb “frustrate” translates “atheteo” in  Greek, with the “a” being an “alpha privative.” That simply means it negates the meaning of the its stem! And the stem is a derivative of “tithemi,” meaning “to set, put, place” or “to make, appoint,” or even “to establish, ordain” something! (So many definitions and translations … a condition called a “wide semantic domain.”)

Here Paul is averring that (maybe even avowing) he WILL NOT MISPLACE the Grace of God!

He will not SET IT ASIDE!

He will not NULLIFY God’s Grace!

In a way, he will not IGNORE it!

Paul will always be a “Grace” Preacher!

So should we all.

Ephesians 2:8-9 … from the pen of this same Paul … via the Holy Spirit of God … “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Paul too here … “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.” Romans 10:9-10, still pure Grace, faith believing!

Wow!

Without Paul, these “Moses-helps-save,” these “Law-insisting” infiltrators in the Galatian Churches might have well won the day! Turned the hearts of Paul’s converts there back to “human works” instead of the “Blood of Jesus!”

Well done … faithful warrior! Paul really did “fight a good fight!”

So must we!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

The capstone of Galatians 2:20 is every bit as beautiful as any other of that Verse’s thrilling revelations! It’s like the “icing on the cake!”

Let me show you. Paul writes, testifies: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” 

Look at that last (compound) clause, please.

“THE SON OF GOD … WHO LOVED ME, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.”

Wow!

Needless to say, on this Website … the identity of the Son of God is None Other than Lord Jesus Christ!

But Paul here shares two facts about Jesus that are noteworthy.

Jesus loved Paul!

He loves you, by the way!

And yes, He loves me!

In fact, He loves the whole world!

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

The verb for “love” used in today’s Text is “agapao,” which indicates the deepest, most enduring, most unselfish love in existence! It’s God’s Love, really! (As in Jeremiah 31:3, except we’re in Hebrew now … “The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.”)

But … how much did the Son of God love Paul, love you, and love me?

“THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.”

Look!

He “gave Himself” for me!

That much love!

On the Cross at Calvary!

“Paradidomai eautou” … the Greek words so translated “gave Himself!”

“Didomai” means “I give.” And with the accompanying (fused) preposition “para” its meaning is intensified! Literally here, Jesus gave Himself “alongside” (“para”) Another! That in one sense would be God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, I think. Yes, Calvary was a Trinitarian Event!

The pronoun “himself” further makes Paul’s statement emphatic!

Jesus in John 10:17 … “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life.” This is doctrinally significant! Jesus willingly died for you and me!

Now, there’s even more …

“… the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself FOR me.” 

Yes, let’s look yet again … Jesus died “for” me, claims Paul!

“Huper” means “in behalf of!” Or even “for the sake of!”

Twice in the King James Bible … “in (one’s) stead!”

Jesus took my place on Calvary!

This is a “substitutionary” Death!

A “vicarious” Death! (In Latin “vicarious” literally means “substitute,” really!)

In Catholicism, the Pope is said (wrongly) to be the very “Vicar” of Christ! They really believe that man is the substitute for Jesus on this earth!

No!

But Jesus did died “for” you and me!” 

Two great facts indeed.

“THE SON OF GOD, WHO LOVED ME, AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME.”

Praise His Name!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

For Paul, “Christ had become the Sole Meaning of life!” That’s an indirect quote from a Bible Teacher of years ago. Something I read earlier this morning.

Proof?

“I live by the faith of the Son of God …” Galatians 2:20, Paul’s testimony! The impetus to Paul’s amazing biography!

The verb “live” (in Greek “zao,” life at its most meaningful, at its best, abundant life) Paul uses here means “living day by day.” An ongoing life, year after year! Until Jesus calls him home! (Indicative mood, present tense, active voice!)

Paul was faithful in pursuing this specific kind of life!

And the “Son of God?”

That’s Paul’s name for Jesus! 

The Pristine, Dignified, Genuine, Only-Begotten Son of God!

One could as correctly say “God The Son!”

Paul lives “for Jesus’ Sake!”

But now look, a prepositional phrase … “by the faith” of the Son of God. Actually this is the first of two key prepositional phrases in this clause!

“By” here translates “en,” which (when used with a dative case object, as here) … means as well as “by” … “in, on, at, among, near,” and such. This is again the idea of our being placed “in” Jesus once we trust Him as our Saviour! Baptized as it were … into Christ our Lord!

Living daily, momentarily … “in” the faith of Jesus!

Wow!

Phrase number two employs no preposition at all (not in Greek). “The faith OF THE SON OF GOD!” (The “of” being supplied by the case of the following noun.) 

This specific turn of words is called a “string” and (again) means (it is used more than once by Paul, this grouping of words, at least 4 times I can find) … one of two things.

Possibly … simply believing in Jesus! Placing (my sincere) faith in Him as God’s Sin Bearer on my behalf! This is true, no doubt. And is parallel with Paul’s other “How-to-be-Saved” Texts!

Alternatively (maybe even additionally) … and equally possible grammatically … by utilizing the perfect “Faith” that belongs to the “Son of God!”

Yes, “huios ho Theos” (Greek for “Son of The God”) is written in the Genitive Case! That suggests that Jesus OWNS the faith that has saved my soul!

More … that Jesus’ Very Own FAITH (here His Faithfulness too, His heroic endurance on Calvary, His absolutely sinless Life, etc.) is the basis for Paul’s beautifully consistent Christian life!

Wow!

What “secrets” of godly behavior are wrapped up in today’s Text!

“I live by the faith of the Son of God …”

Ponder these thoughts today.

Re-read the Lesson, if need be.

Belief in Jesus!

In His Shed Blood!

In His Spotless Life!

In His Integrity!

In His Utter FAITHFULNESS to His Father’s Plan, Will!

Jesus … in Galatians … even more FAIUTHFUL than Moses!

Hebrews 3:1-3 … “Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, CHRIST JESUS; Who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man was counted WORTHY OF MORE GLORY THAN MOSES, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.”

Amen!

 

This today is the fourth Lesson taken from Galatians 2:20, that single verse. With at least one more to go! I find it one of the most important collections of truth in all the New Testament … when it comes to living a successful (mature) Christian Life!

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Again, Galatians 2:20, part of Paul’s autobiography!

I am keenly interested in the clause “the life which I now live in the flesh.” 

Paul was “saved” as a young man, in his early thirties it seems. As he write Galatians he is somewhere around forty-eight to fifty years old, this being one of Paul’s earlier Epistles.

He has been born-again nearly twenty years … and he wants to condense those decades (verbally) in one line … “the life which I NOW live in the flesh.” The emphasis is on the adverb “now,” now that he is saved!

What does he mean by framing “the life he was then living” as being  “in the flesh?”

To Paul the “flesh” meant one of two things. Either his physical body, the “earthly tabernacle” in which he lived … or the “propensity to sin” that was born into Paul (as it was into every human being since Adam and Eve)! His “old sin nature,” in other words.

Here is an example of number one above: “For I would that ye (the Colossians) knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.” His literal facial appearance, his visage, his appearance, Colossians 2:1

Now an illustration of number two: “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.” The flesh as that innate compulsion to sin, Galatians 5:16.

So again, what does Paul mean HERE in Galatians 2:20 by his living “in the flesh?”

In Greek “flesh” is spelled “sarx,” and is derived from a word that means “to sweep away!” Or “to brush off!” Indicating (I believe) something that is temporary, short lived! Not eternal!

Yes … Paul lived those nearly twenty years as a Christian “in the flesh,” but by that he means merely in a human body! And NOT meaning “in the flesh” as the opposite of being “in the Spirit!” In fact, he was perennially filled “with the Holy Spirit!” 

By the way, in this sense look what Paul’s flesh endured for Jesus’ Sake: “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.” 2 Corinthians 11:24-27, what a list!

What kind of truth can I tell about my Christian experience as I am living it in my body? In my flesh? Or can you tell as well?

What a thought this morning!

Paul again about the body, the flesh we inhabit as Believers in Jesus: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1

Our bodies … a living sacrifice!

Our whole bodies?

Including our brains, by that I mean our very minds?

Our eyes, ears too?

How about our tongues?

Feet and hands?

Let’s re-examine ourselves here … based on “the lives we are now living in the flesh!”

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Paul literally claimed this astounding fact: “Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 2:20

By “Christ” (in Greek spelled “Christos”) he of course means the “Anointed One” of God (which is the literal definition of “Christos!”). That’s Jesus, to us Christians! God the Son!

The verb “liveth” translates “zao,” meaning (according to the scholars) “life at its best, life on the highest plane!” Or as Jesus puts it “life more abundantly!”

“Liveth” also is an indicative present active verb. Jesus lives in Paul, progressive, habitually, in a durative manner. He is to be there without end! (True eternal life, I’d say!)

Then Paul writes the preposition, “en” (the little “in” in our King James Bibles) … which in Greek, means “on, at, near, by before, with,” but most powerfully “within!” The Apostle could have written the same sentence without using the “en,” indicating its presence, its meaning, otherwise. But he includes it (the “en”) for dramatic emphasis!

Jesus IN us!

That’s because the Holy Spirit is within us!

God being NOT Three Distinct Persons, but ONE GOD, expressing Himself in Truine Form!

If GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT lives “IN” me, so also does GOD THE SON live “IN” me!

In one Bible illustration our very bodies have become the “Temple” of God!  “What? know ye not that your body is the TEMPLE of the Holy Ghost which is IN you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” 1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Wow!

And in the Greek Text, “in me” is expressed “en emoi,” using the dative case for the pronoun “I.” That means Jesus dwelling “in” me is “to” or “for” my good! He lives inside me … to help me every day! 

Think about this earth-shaking fact through the week!

Because of Calvary, GOD THE SON LIVING INSIDE YOU!

Treat Him respectfully, please!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Paul elsewhere wrote this truth as well: “Christ IN you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

Overwhelming!