In one magisterial sentence Paul sums up his relationship to the law, meaning the Law of Moses.

Here in Galatians 2:19 he prudently writes: “For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”

“Through” the law, using the simple Greek preposition “dia,” essentially means “by” the law.  Better yet, “by means of” the law!

Sounds like the law “killed” Paul doesn’t it?

In fact, I suggest the law really kills everyone!

Listen to God’s Word: “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Ezekiel 18:20

And by “sinning” we mean?

Oh, 1 John 3:4 answers this: “Sin is the transgression of the law.”

How many times in the Old Testament is the death penalty pronounced on anyone violating some aspect of the Law? Here’s Exodus 31:15, a single example: “Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.”

Now, multiply this “threat” dozens of times!

Furthermore, crucially, James 2:10 adds: “For whosoever shall keep the WHOLE law, and yet offend in ONE POINT, he is guilty of all.” One little “mishap,” and a sinner is guilty of breaking it all, the entire Mosaic Code!

No wonder Scripture dogmatically concludes: “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23!

So Paul believes that he is “dead” to the Law … because he has (even if accidentally) disobeyed that Law … and that Law (in principle) executed him, put Paul to death!

Dead to the Law! Dead by means of the Law! Dead because of the Law!

But (praise God) “born again” in Christ Jesus the Lord! Because of the Lord Jesus!

Paul’s “deadness” to the Law is a fact, too. The verb “am dead” (in Greek “apothnesko”) being an “aorist,” depicting an action having occurred in the past. Indicatively so, positively so.

Paul’s “aliveness” unto God is a longing desire, possibility … based on Jesus’ Death on Calvary! (And God’s subsequent “Gift” of Salvation! The very “heart” of the Gospel, Paul’s Gospel.) The verb “might live” (in Greek “zao”) being in the subjunctive mood!

This presents us with the distinct possibility of the salvation of everybody (all the “whoseoevers” of John 3:16)! The Atonement is unlimited, then! Everybody who believes in Jesus, repenting of their sins!

Wow, what a Verse!

“For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.”

What pristine theology!

Then … to preach the Law as the means of salvation … is a slap in the Face of Almighty God!

Dead to the Law!

Dead because of the Law’s condemnation!

But then … the possibility of being alive in Jesus!

Paul’s words: “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Romans 10:13

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Does this Lesson make sense? It sure brings me peace!

 

The Tuckasegee River, beautiful, flowing through Dillsboro, North Carolina. I made this photo yesterday afternoon as Debbie and I rode to Church.

This morning we left Dillsboro, North Carolina, the Revival having ended there last night. We drive home and repacked the car … and now I am in Knoxville, Tennessee (Alcoa really) ready to preach tonight. Wow, God is good!

TODAY’S BIBLE STUDY LESSON …

Paul is aghast!

Could anyone forsake the Grace of God and revert to a complex system of laws, 613 of them to be exact, in order to go to Heaven when he or she dies?

Yet some of Paul’s church-members in the Roman Province of Galatia had done that, or were on the verge!

So Paul earnestly asks: “For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” Galatians 2:18

Wow!

If Paul (making himself an example to those Galatians) should go back to the observance of the Law of Moses, as a means of salvation … spurning (renouncing) in the process the Gift of God (salvation) that is offered to every man and woman, boy and girl … Paul would have (automatically) become a “transgressor!”

This noun, “parabates,” simply means one who has “stepped” back across a “line!”

The English etymology of “transgressor” is … one who “goes” (Latin “gradi’) “across” (Latin “trans”) a questionable barrier, maybe even a dangerous demarcation!

Paul is NOT going back!

He will NOT digress!

He will NOT frustrate the Grace of God!

What a lesson for us!

NEVER go back to … anything less than Jesus Blood and Righteousness!

Amen!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Today’s Text, verse is tough!

In fact, I have had to include a second (Galatians) verse to help further clarify what Paul is saying. At least what I believe he is saying.

Paul here asks, in his sometimes opaque way: “But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.” Galatians 2:17

Meaning: “But if, while we (true Believers) seek to be justified (saved) by Christ (by faith alone), we ourselves also are found sinners (by side-stepping Jesus and trusting the Law of Moses) , is therefore Christ the minister (helper to) of sin (at least inconsistency, if now downright error)? God forbid.”

To Paul, falling back on the Law of Moses, for one’s soul salvation, is nothing less than a blatant SIN! It is a denial of the Power of the Grace of God! We who have been saved, who have received salvation as a “gift,” would never want to so dishonor Christ!

To revert to the (inferior) Law of Moses (for salvation) … would in essence (according to Paul’s logic) make Jesus Christ a “minister” (a “servant”) of sin! An “accessory” to sin, one scholar words it!

Jesus certainly preached salvation as the result of belief in Himself, of faith in His Father! (John 5:24 … “Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.”)

If Jesus is wrong here, and a man or woman has to also add obedience to Moses’ law as an aid to salvation … Jesus has become an adjunct to Moses! Moses who would then be a co-saviour! That’s impossible! Nearly blasphemy! Paul preaches: “Is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.”

Maybe Galatians 2:18, the next verse will help us. “For if I (Paul) build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.” That is: “For if I build again (go back to) the things which I destroyed (man’s works for salvation, including any legal list or lists), I make myself a transgressor.” And here “transgressor”means something like “stepping across the line!”

From Grace back into Law!

From Jesus back to Moses!

Now I too say, “GOD FORBID!”

The verb “destroyed” above is a translation of the Greek “kataluo,” to “loosen the bonds” of something! To “set free” something or someone!

Folks, no matter what anyone says … the LAW does not justify anyone!

Only the Blood of Jesus can do that!

Wow!

I never realized how much the Epistle of Galatians (it first half anyway) so dogmatically emphasizes “salvation” apart from human works, particularly obedience to the Mosaic Law.

Truly, we are “saved by Grace!”

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Paul the Apostle was ever impacted by the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ!

And he is also keenly interested in proving that Jews and Gentiles alike are saved “by Grace through faith!”

Listen to him review this vital theology, soteriology …

“We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” Galatians 2:15-16

The Law (of Moses) does NOT save!

“Justified” means “made right” with God, in God’s Sight.

The Faith of Jesus, faith in Jesus … does save!

But the way Paul words this faith/Jesus relationship is intensely captivating!

Specifically … “a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith OF Jesus Christ.”

Then again in the same verse, only a clause later … “that we might be justified by the faith OF Christ.”

Sounds like here, the grammar almost demanding it, that Jesus’ Faith plays a part in our salvation as well! (Not just our faith in Him!)

We are saved by “Jesus’ Faith?” Again, “by the faith OF Christ!”

Which word, “faith” (in Greek “pistis”) can often mean (and does here) “faithfulness!”

Get this now …

Because of Jesus’ Faithfulness to obey His Father’s Will, to come to earth and die for us sinners, to shed His Blood on Calvary …we can be saved! We indeed ARE SAVED by the Faith OF Jesus Christ our Lord!

But still, and equally important, we are saved by believing in Jesus, exercising our personal faith in God’s Son, the Saviour of the world. Trusting His Finished Word on the Cross! The empty tomb as well!

And here is this vital Truth expressed in our Text today … “even we have believed in Jesus Christ!” I have underlined the preposition “in” for emphasis.

In Greek it is “eis,” we have believed “into” Christ Jesus!

One of Paul’s favorite words, ideas!

“Therefore if any man be IN Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17

We, under Holy Spirit conviction, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ … and the same Holy Spirit instantly put us “in” the Body of Christ!

Thus we have trusted “into” Christ our Lord!

Saved, not by law, but by belief, by faith!

And now we are found “IN HIM!”

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

 

Paul is upset!

At the way Peter has been acting!

Some of the time (while in Antioch with Paul) the famous Jerusalem Apostle would eat with the Gentiles, apparently “no questions asked.” Then at other times (depending on who was in town, especially certain “believers” from James’ coalition) … Peter would not “touch” a bite of Gentile food!

Inconsistent!

Partial!

Politics at Church!

So Paul confronts Peter, face-to-face!

Paul remembers the event in some detail! “I said unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?” Galatians 2:14

The key word here is the verb “compellest.”

If Peter (at times) ate just like the Gentiles did, so as not to offend them. So as to show them parity in the family of God, equal-footing with the Jews! Then WHY, at other times, would you do an “about-face” … and require the Gentiles to then live (eat) like the Jews! With all the stipulations of the Mosaic dietary laws?

Makes no sense!

In fact, it appears Peter was “compelling” this legalistic behaviour (these specific eating habits) upon the newly saved Gentile Brethren!

And again, that made Paul “hot under the collar!”

The verb is “anagkazo,” translated “compellest,” as I said. It means “to force.” Or “to drive” a person (here) to a certain course of action!

And that today is the “heart” of our lesson.

Willingly serving Jesus … a beautiful expression of love for our Lord!

Coercing and bullying and browbeating a person into serving God … not such a beautiful expression!

God longs for a willing people!

Do what you do for Jesus … out of a free (cheerful) heart of gratefulness. “Not by constraint,” Peter himself once said! (In 1st Peter 5:2, matter of fact)

TO FORCE “CHRISTIAN” BEHAVIOUR, DICTATING SOME PARTICULAR DEED, IS NOT A WISE PATH TO FOLLOW!

In my eyes, the Holy Spirit is a Gentleman, not a Taskmaster! I am talking about God the Holy Spirit!

Way back in Exodus 25:2 (the first mention in the whole Bible of the word “willingly”) God taught: “Speak unto the children of Israel, that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart ye shall take my offering.” Long ago, when Israel was just beginning to amass the materials for the Tabernacle in the wilderness!

Do things for Jesus today, willingly!

And as you pursue your daily life for Him … DO NOT let anyone force you into a mode of behaviour you’re not convinced is right! Christian leaders are NOT bosses over God’s heritage!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell