Studies in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

by Bob Burridge ©2017

Lesson 16: Galatians 6:6-10 (video)

Doing Good in God’s Kingdom

While we need to be careful about dangers from outside the church as they work against God’s truth, we also need to be careful about our own conduct within the church.

In this last chapter of Paul’s letter to the Galatians there are some final admonitions to the churches of Galatia. They are preserved for us here in our Bibles so we can learn from them too.

Paul reminded the church that it should support those doing the work of the teaching ministry.

6. Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

When the church neglects the way God set it up to operate, it can’t do its work effectively.

There was a time in the history of Israel when the people neglected the church in its Old Testament form. They directed their efforts and resources to their own needs first. They stopped prioritizing the work of God’s Kingdom in their lives. They worked on their own homes and businesses (certainly good and right things to do), but they made the mistake of putting those needs first in their lives. Times were hard so they withheld the tithe as the first item in their personal budgets. This left the place of worship underfunded, and her ministers underpaid. With a weakened church corruption grew around them, and in their own lives too.

In the time of the Apostles the church in the region of Galatia was neglecting good teachings. The main point of the book of Galatians was to correct the error of the legalists, the Judaizers. Like so many still today, they believed that their own deeds were necessary for their guilt to be removed. But the Bible always taught that we are redeemed by grace alone. Being made right with God is the work of the promised Savior alone, and is applied individually by faith alone.

The Greek word “kataeche-o” (κατηχέω) is translated here as “taught” and “teaches”. Only the grammatical form is different in each case. Our words “catechize” and “catechism” come from this same Greek word. We need to be taught about God’s truth and promises, and about how we should then live as Redeemed children of God. But when God’s people aren’t taught well, they fall for cute stories, and a religion of self-effort.

In 2 Timothy 4:2-5 Paul encouraged Timothy to focus on the teaching part of his ministry: He said, “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”

The teaching ministry of the church is the primary work of its called and ordained Elders. All Elders are to be teachers. That’s the main distinctive of their job description in the Bible. Some Elders are more extensively trained to analyze the Scriptures carefully, to teach the people during worship and in classes, and to oversee the administration of the Sacraments. These are often called Pastors or Teaching Elders because they shepherd God’s people in the ways God said. The other Elders are Ruling Elders who apply God’s teachings to church policies and practices. But all Elders are to be careful instructors of God’s word to the people.

Good teaching isn’t easy work, and it’s not done with just anecdotes or with tricky rhyming words. Every Scripture passage needs to be carefully, cautiously studied as it was originally written. The setting has to be understood, and how it all fits in with the rest of Scripture. Elders have a high level of responsibility and answer to God for everything they teach.

It was the failure of the local Elders that let the heretics deceive the Galatian churches. The first part of this Epistle was taken up with correcting their misguided teachings. In this part it’s about how they are able to do their work.

The Elder’s work of teaching God’s word isn’t considered to be labor for their provisions. Their work was not forbidden on the Sabbath. It’s service for God’s Kingdom. But those who teach in the church are to be provided for. That responsibility falls upon those who learn, those guided by the church teachers.

Paul took this up in 1 Timothy 5:17-18, “Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the word and doctrine. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain,” and, “The laborer is worthy of his wages.”

The Reformed commentator John Gill commented on Galatians 6:6 concerning those who teach. He said, “… such as are under their instructions ought to impart of their worldly substance to them, for their honourable and comfortable support and maintenance; for since they spend their time, and make use of their talents, gifts, and abilities, for their instruction in spiritual things, it is but reasonable (and no such great matter) that they partake of their carnal things; and especially since it is the will and ordinance of Christ, that they that preach the Gospel should live of it.”

There is a connection between all human efforts and their results.

7. Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
8. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.

Those who do the work of planting crops, reap the results of their labor. This is so plain in God’s creation that to think otherwise is to mock God the Creator. This basic economic principle applies to all those who work for us, including those who teach and guide us in the church.

“Sowing to the flesh” is used here the same way it was earlier in this epistle. It’s not about physical labor. It’s labor that ignores the spiritual dimension of all things. It caters only to our physical concerns. So “sowing to the Spirit” also follows what Paul explained before in chapter 5. It means laboring with the spiritual dimensions of life in mind. It works to promote the honor of God, and to represent his teachings and ways accurately.

Doing what’s truly good is evidence of God’s work of grace in the sower’s life. It shows that they are redeemed, and therefore will reap everlasting life as God promised. God rewards all faithful labor. We should also reward those who labor for us. The people should do all they can to free up the Elders to engage in careful study of God’s word so they can teach responsibly.

But we should be careful not to grow tired of doing good.

9. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
10. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Laboring for God’s Kingdom is our purpose on earth. It’s our obligation, and ought to be our joy. The principle here is much larger than the support of good teaching in the church.

In doing good, we should not let ourselves become discouraged or disheartened. Like any work we do, even in doing good things, we can get discouraged at times. We have to work with limited time, limited resources, limited strength, and limited abilities. Each of these needs to be budgeted very carefully so that we don’t neglect our obligations, and so we don’t become frustrated by doing more than is reasonable.

One of the most common problems brought to Pastors for personal counseling is the discouragement people feel when they get overwhelmed even by good things. You can’t do everything you might want to do. You can’t own everything your heart desires. You can’t be an expert or even competent at everything you try to do. And you can’t support every charity, ministry, and cause that comes along. Knowing your limitations is as important as knowing your opportunities.

We need to set reasonable goals where we prioritize our duties to Christ and to his church. Then we need to make sure we care for our families and loved ones. After that you budget your resources to best use and enjoy the blessings God provides.

But don’t give in to evil temptations that lure you to use what God gives you unwisely. When it warns us not to “lose heart”, it literally says not to “faint/relax” (the actual Greek word for “heart” isn’t there in the original text). Keep on track with your budget of time, resources, strengths, and abilities without getting discouraged.

There are obstacles sent particularly to discourage us from advancing God’s Kingdom. Evil is coordinated by the Great Deceiver and by our own fallen nature to distract us from honoring God’s ways. Many have been lured away by material goals, popularity, — even by family.

God’s priorities are the good things Paul is writing about here. Hard times economically or personally are never good reasons to abandon our obligations in God’s Kingdom. God’s truth, glory, and people need to be our focus while we live here on earth. Our families and friends should be cared for, and encouraged to do the same. Only then, when we’ve done those things, can we morally use our resources for other matters. Then we can enjoy those blessings beyond our needs and obligations without guilt or distraction.

Every opportunity should be grasped and used to it’s fullest potential. In 1 Corinthians 15:58 the same Apostle said, Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

Sometimes, the work we do for our provisions and for others isn’t well rewarded visibly. But the best rewards are those that are yet to come. God never goes back on his promise to reward his people eternally.

That you are rewarded at all is because of the work Christ did in redeeming you, and because of the good he did which by grace is credited to you. But once redeemed, God calls you to responsible Kingdom Citizenship.

Reach out to the world God sends you into every day. Promote his truth and glory and develop the Holy Spirit’s fruit in your life. Do your part to preserve the peace and purity of the church.

Then Paul adds: “… especially to those who are of the household of faith.” We have a special duty to do what’s right and good toward those in the church. The household of faith is our spiritual family. We need to look upon the needs of other believers as a priority over those who are yet without Christ. We need to be sure of our care for those in our church family.

We need to plan our time, resources, strength, and abilities to put them to good and faithful use to promote Christ’s Kingdom and church with nothing else getting in the way. As we serve we need to give thankful praise to the one who made us and redeemed us by grace.

(The Bible quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.)

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Studies in Paul’s Letter to the Galatians

by Bob Burridge ©2017

Lesson 13: Galatians 5:1-15 (video)

Liberated to Love

There are four theme words in the first 15 verses of Galatians 5 that in English all begin with the letter “L”: Liberty, Law, Love, and Leaven. These words are inner-connected, and teach us something important and very practical.

The Liberty Paul talks about here is the freedom of God’s people from an evil bondage, a bondage to sin. It’s not liberty to do anything we want without consequences. And it’s not a liberty to worship or to think of God in anyway that just seems right to us. It’s a liberty to be the way we were created to be. That’s the only way that really satisfies our hearts, because God made us this way.

The Law of God shows us which things actually honor God, and how God planned to redeem us. It spells out what’s right and what’s wrong. But Law can’t get us to do the right things, or give us faith in the coming Messiah. God’s law condemns us, and points ahead to the sacrifice of Jesus as the Lamb of God.

God’s Love is what changes us, and opens our eyes to God’s promises revealed in the Law. It’s how through Christ we are delivered from the condemnation revealed by the law, and it’s how we are made able to honor God to live the way we were created to live. By God’s love we’re liberated from the chains of evil, and delivered into godly freedom. It’s all by God’s grace alone, not by our own efforts.

But even when the gospel of grace comes into our lives, we can’t stop there. We need to be aware of the dangers around us that entice us to forget the liberation of Grace. Leaven is the 4th “L” word. Paul uses it as an example of how little things can have devastating results.

Chapter 5 of Galatians begins with a reminder: the first “L” — don’t neglect the liberation you have in Christ.

1. Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.
2. Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.
3. And I testify again to every man who becomes circumcised that he is a debtor to keep the whole law.
4. You have become estranged from Christ, you who attempt to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace.
5. For we through the Spirit eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
6. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love.

1. When you trust in Christ alone to make you right with God — you are liberated. You’re set free from the burden of trying to meet impossible standards to be redeemed, and you’re set free from the chains of evil, and the guilt that comes from the things you’ve already done wrong.

Instead of those enslavements, you have become the servant of a kind and loving Master. He took up your guilt and the penalties you deserve, and made you part of his spiritual family. Those he liberates he forgives, he makes alive. He fills them with the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and loves them as his own.

But we’re not liberated from obligations to honor God and to live by his moral principles. Our liberation is from the foolish notion of merit by morals or by rituals. No one can ever earn his way back into God’s favor. God’s law shows us that we deserve his wrath. That’s why Jesus had to come to pay our debt. He satisfied the demands of the law in place of his people. Therefore believers are set free from the curse of the law, and into the joys of grace through Christ.

We as believers need to cling to the liberty Christ earned for us. The Gentile Christians in Galatia had at one time lived under the yoke of paganism. They had been raised with heathen ideas idolizing prosperity and pleasure and worshiping false gods. The gospel of Christ set them free from that. They learned that what they do can’t remove their guilt or give them eternal life.

Then along came these Judaizers who were enticing them into another kind of salvation by works. The Gentiles left the yoke of paganism, but now were being drawn into the yoke of Rabbinical Judaism.

The “yoke” in that Hebrew expression is the word “ol” (עוֹל). It’s the wooden beam that locked oxen to a plow. It represented forced servitude, enslavement. The fallen heart is in bondage to the idea that we need to earn God’s blessing. That perverts God’s law into a method of removing our guilt. Only the work of Christ can do that.

2. The Judaizers were saying that all believers need to keep the ceremonial requirements of the law. But no one can keep the perfect standards of God’s law. The law exposes our fallen nature, and points to the Promised Messiah who would pay for our guilt.

At the Council of Jerusalem the Apostles met to deal with this error. They warned in Acts 15:10, ” Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?

The issue was Circumcision, the old sign of God’s Covenant, which had now been replaced by Baptism. Paul was reminding them that trusting in Christ alone is incompatible with relying upon a continuing necessity of circumcision. Dr. William Hendriksen said, “A Christ supplemented is a Christ supplanted.” Either they believed that Jesus Christ was the one who alone satisfied the laws demands for us, or they believed that the ceremonial laws didn’t get fulfilled in Christ, and still need to be kept.

So why stop at circumcision? To demand that, brings you back into the whole ceremonial law. It’s to live the way things were before Christ’s atonement on the Cross. Paul urged the Galatians to continue to stand firm in that freedom from their former bondage. To be re-enslaved to law-works again, is to deny the sufficiency of the work Christ did.

Paul says that those going back to the law are fallen from Grace (verse 4). It makes no sense for those believing in Christ to go back to the symbolism of the law. If they turned away from grace alone as what redeemed them, then either they weren’t really regenerated to begin with, or were being tragically deceived and forfeiting the blessings of living by God’s principles.

We are not tempted in exactly the same way today. We are not tempted by Judaizers to adopt the old Jewish rituals. But there are influences that can tempt us to think God accepts us because of things we do.

Some try to draw us into ritualistic religions which are nothing more than sanctified superstitions. The Sacraments are not magical rites that automatically take your sins away. Repeating certain words in your prayers does not trigger blessings to be dispensed. There are no sacred objects that carry blessings with them. Crosses and statues will not keep you from accidents, illness, or temptation.

These are not the ways revealed in the Bible. Nothing you do, or touch, or say carries the power to bring down God’s blessings. God looks on the heart held captive by Christ and blesses because of what Jesus did for you. It’s not your good deeds, conservative social attitudes, or denial of personal comforts that makes you right with God. It’s his grace alone transforming your heart through Christ. That’s what moves you to love him, to love others, and to do what’s right out of thankful gratitude.

Paul warns against getting tangled up in bondage again. There’s a natural tendency in us to become self-absorbed. We tend to think that our eternal destiny is in our own hands.

If you believe your outward deeds or words can earn God’s blessings whether it’s circumcision, sacraments, repeated prayers, sacred objects, or social programs, you deny the sufficiency of the work of Jesus Christ in redeeming you.

Those who believe this false gospel have fallen from grace. Instead of resting in God’s provision, they think they have to earn it for themselves. If this is a person’s way of thinking about Christianity, the law condemns them. They are rejecting what God’s law pointed toward and meant.

3. In place of self-caused salvation, God’s word teaches that it’s faith working by Love. By faith, hope in Christ’s righteousness alone, a person is made right with his Creator.

False religion teaches that if you love enough you grow closer to God. Biblical religion teaches that when Christ brings you back into fellowship with God you learn to love as he loved you.

Love and good deeds are the fruit of grace and faith, not the cause or root of it.

Paul reminds them that at one time the converted Galatians lived as they should.

7. You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?
8. This persuasion does not come from Him who calls you.

Paul had seen the evidence of Christ at work in their lives when they first believed. He had confidence that by God’s grace they will go back to their former well-run-race. He wanted them to realize that bad influences were hindering them from living by God’s truth.

4. It doesn’t take much to ruin a good thing.

9. A little leaven leavens the whole lump.
10. I have confidence in you, in the Lord, that you will have no other mind; but he who troubles you shall bear his judgment, whoever he is.
11. And I, brethren, if I still preach circumcision, why do I still suffer persecution? Then the offense of the cross has ceased.
12. I could wish that those who trouble you would even cut themselves off!

A little too much sugar or salt can make a good dish taste bad. A bad tire can cause an accident that destroys a car and kills its passengers. A small leak in a gas line can cause an entire building to explode. Or as Paul puts it here, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump.” The point here is that even what seems like a little deviation from God’s truth can get your whole life going in the wrong direction.

By hoping in outward things you do, you forget the heart of the gospel. Don’t count your prayers or the minutes you read the Bible. Look on your heart as you pray and read. Are you aware of the Living Christ? Are you speaking in faith to him? Are you remembering that you’re reading God’s own word? It’s not rituals or practices that take away your guilt. No wonder that people have anxiety and depression in their lives if they forget that it’s God’s perfect love that redeems and keeps them. Leave your worries at the cross of Christ where they are paid for in full.

Benjamin Franklin once said, “for want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe a horse was lost, for want of a horse a rider was lost, for want of a rider a battle was lost, for want of a battle a kingdom was lost.” That little nail could be the tiny thought in your heart that you haven’t done enough.

To accept a misunderstanding of God’s law, of the Gospel, effects your whole life. It arranges your every attitude around a false starting point. You can’t keep God’s law enough to erase your past sins. Give in to one point like that and you’re condemned because you can’t be good enough. James 2:10, “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.”

Paul says that those who promote ideas like that will bear their own judgment. People sometimes approach God’s word as if they can choose what they like and ignore the rest. Without realizing how it effects their attitude toward God people to latch on to some wrong idea that gets them off the track of truth. As God pointed out here through the Apostle Paul, it just takes a little error to send a life into a horrible spin out of control.

Paul wanted them to understand that he was being persecuted for standing up for truth. He could easily have compromised on that little point of allowing circumcision to continue. But to do that destroys the whole Gospel message.

In the last part of this section, verses 13-15, Paul explained the boundaries of Christian liberty.

13. For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.
14. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
15. But if you bite and devour one another, beware lest you be consumed by one another!

Liberty in Christ isn’t a liberty from Christ. It’s a liberation from bondage to error, so that you can enjoy freedom to live by God’s truth.

Here’s where he brings the focus back to that 3rd key “L” word – Love. Love as the Bible speaks of it isn’t a romantic moment or just an emotional feeling. It’s defined by God’s word as expressed in his law. The law in the broad use of the word teaches the perfect way which can’t be followed aside from Christ. It tells us how to love, how to honor God in our lives, and how to live among others here in God’s world.

Jesus explained it this way all through his ministry. In John 14:21 he said, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. …” In Romans 13:10 Paul said, “Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”

Biblically, “Love is an attitude implanted into our needful human hearts by the prevailing grace of God whereby we are enabled to joyfully obey the revealed desires of our Creator both toward the Lord himself and toward those he Created.”

When Christ works in you to move you to honor God and to treat others as he says, that’s love. His perfect love is credited to you even when you don’t deserve it. That’s grace. He also works in those changed by his grace so that they strive to do what God says is right.

Make sure that these 4 Key “L” words are active in your life every day. Rest in the liberty you have in Christ. Don’t become enslaved by the lie that you have to earn your way into God’s blessings. Let God’s law teach you and convict your heart of it’s deep need for the Savior. Appreciate God’s standards for worship and morality. See how the law points toward the Savior who would die to redeem his people. Learn to love as God defines it in his word. Rely on the power of the Risen Savior to make you able to live to promote God’s glory in all things, and to stir you to live by his moral principles. And don’t let little pieces of leaven, wrong beliefs and practices, spoil your whole life. Let his word identify the dangers and direct your steps in the narrow way.

You are free from the chains of self-effort, guilt and anxiety, because Jesus Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law in your place, and he lives in your heart to do what is impossible without him. You can overcome the depressions and agonies which are exaggerated by focusing on yourself, when you turn your attention to Jesus and rest in his gracious victory that delivers you.

(The Bible quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.)

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by Bob Burridge ©2017
Lesson #6 Galatians 3:1-5 (video) – (download updated lesson)

Living By Faith

Living as a godly person here on earth during this time before eternal glory isn’t easy. In the first place, we’re not yet perfect or complete. Our fallen souls are tempted to do what we shouldn’t do, and to neglect what we should do. Second, we live in a world saturated by distortions and bad examples to follow. It’s filled with theories based on bad information, and generations of excuse-making. We’re urged to run like lemmings after what everybody else values and does.

There’s a battle we need to fight not only against what’s around us, but also against what’s in us. So how do we get the victory? or know we’re doing the right thing?

God didn’t redeem us, then leave us to figure it out by ourselves, or to win the battles on our own. God gave us his written word. It was recorded long ago to guide us and to comfort us. It was preserved providentially by the blood of martyrs so that it’s here for us today. It was translated into our language by scholars gifted by God, and made available for us to read, study, and learn.

God also gave us a living Savior and the Holy Spirit. They help and empower us to live by the promises and principles in that book we call the Bible. He also regenerates his children, and gives them faith to trust that word.

But there are enemies of God’s plan. Satan struck us first in Eden where we were all made defective by the fall into sin. But once we’re redeemed it doesn’t mean the enemy’s going to leave us alone.

Way back in the first century AD there were some who came to Galatia to derail the gospel if they could. But God raised up the Apostle Paul to write a letter to expose their attack. God preserved that letter for us to read because the basic principles still apply today.

In chapter 3 of that letter Paul gets right to the issue:

1. O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,

Someone was deceiving them, luring them down the wrong path. The word translated “bewitched” is “bas-kaino” (βασκαίνω). It means to draw someone to follow them by deceit or by impressing them in some way. These deceivers were not atheists or pagans. They were religious leaders, the Judaizers. They claimed to be Christians, but were diluting the Gospel by combining it with a confused view of God’s law.

The Judaizers misunderstood the purpose of the laws God gave Israel. They failed to see how God’s law always pointed toward Christ. They wanted to ignore the changes brought about by the Savior’s life and death.

From the time of Abraham to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, Circumcision was the sign of belonging to God’s covenant people. Only the males were circumcised to illustrate the representative nature of God’s covenants. The males represented the families they would one day lead. But after our Savior finished the work God promised in Eden, Baptism became the new sign of belonging to the Covenant People of God. Both genders receive the sign, because Jesus is now our representative fulfilling the promise.

From the time of Moses to the resurrection of Jesus, Passover was the ultimate sacrifice. It represented what the coming Messiah would do. A lamb was slain in place of the death of the first-born son of each family back in Egypt. After the work of our Savior, the Lord’s Supper represented his final sacrifice for sin. Jesus, the Lamb of God, was slain in place of the eternal death we each deserve. To continue to require the Passover is a denial that it’s purpose was fulfilled in Christ.

All the ritual cleansings in the Levitical laws were set aside when real cleansing took place. Israel wasn’t the exclusive Covenant Community any more. Instead of marking out just the descendants of Jacob, non-Jews, the Gentiles, are included.

But the Judaizers were pressuring the Christians in Galatia to force Gentile converts to submit to the now fulfilled Jewish Ceremonial Laws.

Paul asked the believers in Galatia to explain why they were being taken in by the Judaizers.

2. This only I want to learn from you: before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified? Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
3. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?
4. Have you suffered so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain?
5. Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? —

The Galatians had seen the power of Christ in the lives of the Apostles and in their own lives. So Paul pointed out the absolute foolishness of being deceived by these other teachings.

The life they found in Christ didn’t come by the rituals. It came by the message they received by faith in what God had been illustrating in the rituals. They learned that Jesus was the sacrifice all the other sacrifices pointed toward. They received the Holy Spirit sent from Jesus Christ and God the Father. This new life wasn’t found in the work of the priests who served before the Gospel came to them.

This passage confuses a lot of people. Confusion is one of the primary tactics of the enemy of God’s plan. The most common targets of confusion are these two key ideas of law and faith.

B>First, there’s a lot of confusion about the law of God. The word “law” is a very general word the way we use it in day-to-day conversations. We pass civil laws to punish crime and preserve public safety. These laws apply general principles to specific situations. To keep our roads and pedestrians safe, we have traffic laws. To protect our lives and possessions we have various criminal and contract laws. Nations agree on certain international laws to protect their borders and security.

Sometimes we talk about the law of gravity, or Newton’s laws of motion. These are mathematical descriptions of how physical things behave. They follow rules built into creation. As we confirm them we call them laws.

We also talk about general principles as if they were laws. There’s the law of supply and demand in economics, and various laws of sociology.

The Bible sometimes uses the word law in these same basic ways. You have to look at the context in each case to see how the word’s being used. When it mentions God’s Laws, it may be about God’s commandment’s or principles at work in his creation. There are general principles. In Romans 7:23 Paul mentions conflicting laws he found to be at work in him. He’s referring to the lust of his body, and the principles at work in his mind. There he calls them both laws, or principles at odds with one another. Earlier in the same chapter Paul tells how the moral laws of God exposed his sin. As an example, he mentioned God’s commandment against coveting. These laws are the moral behaviors God says are good. The violation of them is sin.

Paul is not saying all these laws or principles have stopped applying to all humans. These revealed general principles were built into the universe or into human nature from the beginning.

Sinful things in the Old Testament were not now becoming good, and good things becoming bad. He can’t mean that before the ten commandments it was OK to covet things God didn’t give us. It doesn’t mean that before Sinai the other 9 Commandments weren’t in effect either. It’s always been wrong to worship other God’s, to make images of God, to use his name carelessly, to labor on the Creation Sabbath day, to defy God appointed authority, to murder, commit adultery, steal, or lie.

Here in Galatians 3 he’s talking about the regulations of the Levitical Codes given to Israel at Sinai. This is clear from verse 17. There he says that the law he’s talking about didn’t come until 430 years after Abraham. That was when God gave the Levitical Regulations to Israel after the Exodus.

The “works of the law” Paul’s talking about is the performing of the rituals given to Israel by Moses. The ritual laws of the Priesthood were teaching about how God redeems us. They were not moral principles. Their purpose was to help Israel anticipate the coming sacrifice of Jesus. They pointed to the solution of the sin problem the moral laws revealed in them. They made God’s people stand out as a holy nation prefiguring the special nature of Christ’s church. They were never intended to apply to all people all the time. But the Judaizers wanted to force Gentiles to keep the Levitical Codes and rules of the Rabbis.

Secondly, Paul makes a contrast between these works of law and the “hearing of faith.” The word “faith” here is the normal word often simply translated by the word trust. It’s the Greek word “pistis” (πιστις). When you have faith it’s always faith in something. It has an object you trust in. In this case the object of our trust should be God’s promises and revealed truth.

Before Christ’s birth, God redeemed believers by their trust in the promise of the coming Savior. After his death, believers trust in Christ’s finished work on the cross.

So in every era of history, saving faith is trust in God’s promise that the Messiah removes sin. We are redeemed by his work, never by our own acts or accomplishments. We don’t need a priesthood to do things beyond what Christ has already done. We don’t have to worry that we haven’t done enough to get to heaven. Jesus did it all for us — that’s the gospel.

So now we live by faith in that finished work. We live as if we really trust God for everything he says in his word. We tell the truth and act kindly because God tells us that it’s always best. By his grace we believe it and strive to obey his loving counsel.

Saving faith is a trust in the things God made known, his law in that general sense. His moral law exposes that we’re lost in sin without hope except in the Savior. It shows us how to then live thankfully after God redeems us. A study of the ritual law shows how God’s substitute would come to pay the price of our sins. But we don’t keep those ritual now as if the Messiah hadn’t yet come. There’s no act of the church, or ritual we can take part in, that takes away our sins. It was all accomplished in Jesus Christ just as God had always promised.

There’s a wonderful blessing in this implanted faith. If our confidence that what God said and did is true, it gives us a sure hope. As God’s children, we confidently trust what God says, and therefore we want to live by his promises. Trusting and obeying are the results of Grace. They aren’t the cause of it.

When we trust in God’s word about the substitute death of Jesus Christ for our sins, we are given all the comforts and assurances God promises in his gracious Covenant.

Today the Judaizers are long gone, but the confusion is still with us. The fallen heart still wants to believe that a person can earn God’s favor by his own efforts. That’s the heart of Satan’s strategy. He wants to confuse God’s truth and promise, just as the Judaizers did in old Galatia.

When you worry about doing enough to earn salvation, you deny the fact of your fall into sin. The Bible says that when you fell in Adam, you lost all desire and ability to truly glorify God. It makes it clear that the debt is so great, no one is able to pay it off. You also deny the reason Jesus had to come to die in your place. If you could earn salvation, then the suffering and death of the Savior was just a frivolous object lesson and example of humility — nothing more. These poisonous teachings contradict everything the Bible says.

People have always tried to make up a religion that earns God’s forgiveness. That’s what Paul calls false religion — a replacement for the true gospel.
– The fallen heart thinks that by doing charitable things it removes guilt.
– Some believe that by partaking of the Sacraments magically take sins away.
– Others think that their decision is what convinces God to save them.
In reality all these good things are evidences of God’s grace at work. They don’t make it happen.

Like the Judaizers of ancient times, these false ways claim to be Christian. But they are it’s exact opposite. They trust in human works to make them righteous in God’s eyes. It’s not by the works of law that we become Christians. It’s when the promises of God revealed in the law are heard and trusted, that the heart is transformed. That’s a wonderful work of Grace all by itself.

While some add obedience to the law to faith in the Gospel, others go to the opposite extreme and think you can have faith while rejecting all of God’s law. That’s not what’s taught here either. Paul isn’t telling the Galatians that all of God’s law is outdated and has expired. He doesn’t promote faith as some general optimism that replaces God’s moral commandments. He’s not saying that the entire Old Testament only has value to the Jews.

He’s reminding them that the Bible never taught salvation by the law. He points out that the law shows what’s right, and that you can’t walk that path because you’re lost. The law exposes sin and the rituals point the way to the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That’s what it always did, and that’s what God’s law still does.

Without God’s word exposing sin and promising the Savior your faith isn’t in the right thing. The faith God’s grace stirs in your heart is a trust in all that God revealed.

That means you need to really trust in what God says in his word. You trust that his way to manage your home and family is the best way for them. You trust that his moral principles are the only right guide for your thoughts and entertainment. You trust his economic principles for how you do your work, and manage your money. You trust his organization of the church as the right way to worship and grow as a spiritual family. And you trust his directions for your personal life. You make time to seriously pray and study the Scriptures. You take worship seriously at every level: you worship him alone in your thoughts all through every day you worship him as a family, and when you’re called to worship in the congregation.

Real faith means you have faith in God’s promises as the only way your guilt can be forgiven. Satan wants you to think you need to fix your guilt by your own good deeds and efforts, or by the efforts of priests and rituals. Instead, you need to trust completely in the work of Jesus Christ alone to make you right with God.

Perhaps your friends are deceived and think they have to earn forgiveness. You have the liberating gospel that can set them free and change their lives. You know enough to point them to God’s truth and to rescue them from false religion. Don’t let them put their eternal hope in lies that advance Satan’s agenda.

Be humbly persistent with them as you live for Christ and explain what he accomplished. Sincerely invite them to worship with you, where they can grow as part of your church family. Pray for them, and let them know you care about them.

It’s not by cathedrals, rituals, rallies, or personal efforts that anyone enters the Kingdom of Christ. It’s by a humble but sincere trust in the finished work of the Savior.

This is the foundation of real biblical Christianity. It’s your job and calling to be an agent of God on earth, an agent of change in the lives of others. Trust in the promises of Scripture, and live as if you really trust what God says there.

There are a lot of religious people trying real hard to get right with God. But they don’t really know God, or what he’s promised them. They go to church, read the Bible now and then, try to do good, and they pray. But the good news, the gospel, is that though God requires perfection, Jesus Christ came to be perfect in our place.

Yet when the Holy Spirit moves us to trust in this payment for sin it changes us inside. It enables believers to do what they couldn’t before and to really enjoy life. Even through the hard times they can rest in the assurances of their Living Savior. Our church-going, Bible-reading, praying, and serving take on a new and truly rewarding dimension.

It’s not your effort that brings the victory over sin and it’s depressive consequences. It’s the finished work of the Savior that does all that.

Living God’s way is the only method that works for living here in God’s world. It begins by resting in the Savior’s work of Grace, rather than in any rituals or rules you keep.

The Gospel is truly liberating. Don’t neglect this vital fact in your life. Don’t keep it a secret from people around you. Don’t be like the foolish Galatians who were so easily deceived by convincing popular teachings. Put your trust in God’s promises through Christ, and bravely and consistently live as he tells you to.

(The Bible quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies in Galatians

by Bob Burridge ©2017
Lesson 4: Galatians 2:1-10 (video) – (download updated lesson)

The Church Challenged

The book of Galatians was written to deal with some problems that were troubling the early church. The gospel of Justification by Faith alone, through Christ alone, because of God’s Grace alone, was under attack from a few groups of people. Some of the attackers actually claimed to be God’s people.

The Jewish people had been the keepers of God’s word for hundreds of years. But their powerful and large Synagogues had a superficial understanding of the Bible. They taught that those who were descendants of Abraham, and who kept the law, were God’s special people. Many of them who came to profess faith in Jesus Christ, were being taught a distorted form of the gospel.

False teachers had slipped into the churches and were getting an alarmingly large following. They blended the errors of apostate Judaism with a bland version of Christianity. They preached a promise of salvation from eternal punishment, and a hope of heaven. But it depended upon human efforts, rituals, and our own obedience. They talked about God’s grace – but it wasn’t grace alone. If it’s not grace alone, it’s not grace at all.

The Jewish Synagogues, from which the early churches were forced to separate, were the center of social life for the community. It’s where young single men and women met one another, where children played with friends, where men planned business deals, and talked about politics and sports, where women could talk with one another about their personal interests and struggles. These are good things, but worship there had been corrupted. The focus was shifting to needs that centered on personal benefits, rather than the grace of God.

The funds the Synagogues controlled took care of the poor, the orphans, the sick, and the widows. But the power of their leaders over the community, and all their complex rules made the people dependent on the Corrupted Synagogues. The Rabbis were respected by those who depended upon them. They quoted selected Scriptures, and boasted of great scholars, so they appeared to be wise.

But there was a problem — they were deceptively wrong. The Scriptures the Jewish leaders quoted were taken out of context, not considering other clear teachings in the Bible. They believed that man needed to earn his place in God’s eternal Kingdom. To them, God was great but had little control over human choices. They knew we were sinners, but not incapable of deserving heaven and blessings.

So when the Christian message started to spread in the Jewish communities, believers had to make hard choices. By admitting their trust in Jesus Christ they lost the benefits the Synagogues offered. They were cut off socially, in business, and lost support for the needy among them.

The Synagogues didn’t just cut them off, they saw the Gospel of Christ as a threat. They attacked the leaders of the church, and tried to discredit the teaching of the Apostles. They said Paul had been deluded by the other Apostles, then turned against even them. Answering these personal attacks was one of the reasons Paul wrote this letter to the churches of Galatia.

But there’s more in this letter than just that. Some who joined the new churches were still sympathetic with the Main-Line-Synagogues. They didn’t see the problem since both claimed to worshiped the true God, and both quoted from the same Bible. But the understanding of some of the early believers was immature and uninformed. Judaizers tried to mix these two different ways of salvation together. They wanted the non-Jewish believers to accept the rituals of the Old form of God’s covenant. They held on to the idea that we could do good works and rituals that helped us toward salvation.

Many popular churches today make similar mistakes. They’re not from a Jewish background so the things they promote are different. But similarly they believe that God’s grace depends on our choices and decisions. They teach that until sinners give God permission to save them, they can’t be saved. Human effort and human decisions are still confusing the gospel of Grace. The principle Paul is dealing with in this Epistle is very important now as always. God’s spiritual enemies always present a modified gospel which is not a gospel at all.

Galatians chapter 2 gets right to the heart of these issues. In Chapter 1, Paul explained how amazed he was that some of them were so easily confused. He reminded them that it wasn’t the influence of the Apostles that changed his mind about Christ. God had spoken to him directly by the appearing of the Resurrected Christ while he was on his way to persecute Christian believers in Damascus. By a work of God’s grace alone, he became a promoter of the Christian Faith he once persecuted. He didn’t go to Jerusalem to meet other Apostles for about 3 years after his conversion.

His point couldn’t have been said more clearly and directly: God gave him his message. Now in Chapter 2 he explained more about his relationship with the other Apostles and their message.

He begins by telling them about his trip to Jerusalem with Barnabas and Titus.

1. Then after fourteen years I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and also took Titus with me.
2. And I went up by revelation, and communicated to them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to those who were of reputation, lest by any means I might run, or had run, in vain.

Barnabas was a Christian, and by birth he was a Levite, a member of the priestly family of Israel. He had been sent by the Christian Church in Jerusalem to lead the church in Antioch of Syria. He had traveled with Paul on his First Missionary Journey.

Titus was a Gentile who had come to Christ. He was a leader of the new churches on the Island of Crete.

After about a decade and a half God directed Paul to take these two men with him to Jerusalem. He was sent to communicate to the believers there about the Gospel he’d been preaching to the Gentiles. Questions and accusations were circulating. Lies were told about the message he brought to the non-Jews in the Gentile regions.

Paul made it clear that even in Jerusalem the Apostles didn’t expect Gentiles to follow the old rituals.

3. Yet not even Titus who was with me, being a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised.

God made Circumcision to be the sign and seal of his covenant until the coming of Christ. Those symbolic rituals were no longer meaningful since Jesus fulfilled what they represented. Titus was respected by these Apostles as a full member of the Church without having to be circumcised.

There’s only one Gospel. It’s the promise of Grace, that God would send a Redeemer to pay for his people’s sins. Christ would take their guilt, and credit them with his own righteousness.

This Gospel had been represented by the Sacrifices and Jewish Rituals before Jesus came. But after that, it was all fulfilled by the one all-sufficient sacrifice of Jesus. His Redemption and Covenant were now to be represented in a different way. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper replaced the old signs and seals of the Covenant. These new sacraments represented the same things the old ones represented.

But always, the good news is that redemption is the work of God’s Grace alone. What believers do is the result, not the cause, of the new life they have in Christ their Savior.

In verses 4-5 Paul explained the challenge he was dealing with.

4. And this occurred because of false brethren secretly brought in (who came in by stealth to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us into bondage),
5. to whom we did not yield submission even for an hour, that the truth of the gospel might continue with you.

These false brothers had infiltrated the churches to gather information for their attacks. They were not true brothers in Christ, but used his name and claimed to be believers. Because of their misunderstanding, they thought they were the “true Christians”. They openly argued against what Paul and the other Apostles taught. They wanted the old covenant signs to continue because of their distorted understanding of God’s law.

Instead of believing that the ceremonial laws and rituals of the Temple era were fulfilled in Christ,they insisted they were necessary for salvation, and should continue in the church. They wanted to spy out how they could better oppose the gospel of grace alone. They attacked the gospel idea of “liberty in Christ” as if it meant liberty from what God said in the past. They missed the whole point that in Christ we are set free from the condemnation of the law, and we are set free from the rituals which had now completed their purpose. We are also set free to truly glorify God in all we do.

The law of God still and always has revealed sin, exposes spiritual death, and directs us how to live for Christ’s glory. Jesus submitted to the condemnation of the law in our place, and made us his people by grace.

There’s nothing evil about the law of God. But to believe that it, or that any human work, contributes to our salvation is a total contradiction of the message of Scripture in both the Old and New Testaments. That was never the purpose of the law to begin with.

This is what Jesus said to those deceived scholars in Matthew 22:29, ” … You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.”

The true Gospel does what the law could never do. The law showed what pleases God, and what God promised in the coming Christ. To us who are fallen, it reveals our lostness and spiritual death at our conception. The liberty we have in Christ is our enablement by grace alone to finally see the truth in Scripture, and to begin to have the right motive in living for God’s glory.

Paul, his companions, and the Jerusalem Apostles didn’t yield to this confusion for even a moment. These ceremonial laws had nothing to do with God’s eternal moral principles. They were strictly redemptive symbols God required in the time before the Messiah came. To require them after the cross, would be to deny the complete sufficiency of the life and work of Jesus.

This requirement of human effort was never just a minor difference. It’s a false gospel, which is no good news at all. Human works and decisions should not be on an equal standing with the completed work of Jesus. It denies the barrier of our guilt, the power and nature of God, and the wonder of the Gospel of Grace.

The Apostles understood how vital this message of grace is in preserving the Good News about Christ.

But what a great truth is it! God looks on us with a love undeserved. There is nothing in us that can either earn our salvation, or cause us to lose it once we have it. Our Savior, Jesus Christ, paid it all and calls us to himself, and will never let us go.

When we struggle with our own weaknesses, when our loved ones are hurting and confused, when all seems lost or insurmountable — God is there as our Loving Redeemer and Lord. Our own efforts neither earn his love, nor alienate us from it. We are alive by grace alone through the faith he puts in our otherwise foolish hearts. Because of that, we undeserving creatures rest in the perfect work of Christ. That never lets us fall short of God’s eternal mercies which never fail.

The modified gospels so many have preached down through the ages and still preach today, are no gospel at all, as Paul said in the beginning of this letter. They tell people to feel good, to have hope, but in reality it burdens them instead of setting them free.

Paul and the others who led the faithful churches in the First Century saw the problem.

So Paul set the record straight so the believers in Galatia would understand.

6. But from those who seemed to be something—whatever they were, it makes no difference to me; God shows personal favoritism to no man—for those who seemed to be something added nothing to me.
7. But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel for the uncircumcised had been committed to me, as the gospel for the circumcised was to Peter
8. (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles),
9. and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.
10. They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

When Paul uses the word “they” he’s talking about the Apostles in Jerusalem. The enemies of grace seemed to perceive these Apostles as self-promoters with great power in the church. They made that mistake because of how they always promoted themselves. The Priests and Rabbis saw themselves as great men who stood above the rest. They assumed that in the Christian Church, the leaders must have the same status.

But Paul reminds us that that’s not the way it is with church leadership. God sees us all as his children, sinners unworthy except by his saving us through Christ. These seemingly important leaders in Jerusalem were just men redeemed the same as all believers. They had apostolic authority, and the Elders of the church had authority too, but they were not there independently of what God himself made them to be. Godly leaders guide the people to glorify God, not themselves.

It was clear, even to the other Apostles, that Paul’s ministry was valid, and consistent with their own message. God had called Peter to bring the good news to the Jews that their Messiah had come. Paul was called to take the same message to the Gentiles who had no background in Scripture. But it was the same truth, the same salvation.

Those who were considered by some as the “Pillars of the Church” agreed with Paul. James, Peter (called by his Hebrew name Cephas here), and John clearly accepted him.

When they heard the facts, and met with Paul privately, they received Paul and Barnabas into fellowship, and fully recognize their ministry to the Gentiles.

What Paul told them was good news to the leaders in Jerusalem. The Gospel was going beyond the boundaries of those born to the Jews. This was exactly what God had promised to the Patriarchs and through the prophets.

There was no need to correct Paul, and there was no new information they were able to give him. Instead, to the frustration of their critics, the leaders of the church rejoiced in what Paul had done and taught.

The Apostles with Paul and his co-workers deliver an important final reminder.

10. They desired only that we should remember the poor, the very thing which I also was eager to do.

Once it was clear that they were in full agreement about the basic matters that brought them together, there was one final reminder about what God’s grace has redeemed them to do.

The critics of Paul, and those confusing the Gospel with a distorted view of God’s law, had been making it hard for the believers that would not compromise their faith. As the big Synagogues expelled believers and cut off help to their needy loved ones, the smaller churches became burdened with an enormous challenge.

They didn’t have large funds and investments to take over care of those unable to work: the sick, the disabled, the orphans and the widows. These were the real suffering victims of Paul’s critics.

This is why the office of Deacon was set up for the church in Acts 6. The teachers of the church were overburdened. They needed leadership in conducting the mercy ministries to the brave followers of Christ. Social ministries are not the Gospel. They are the results of the Gospel in the lives of those redeemed.

When the Jerusalem Apostles recognized Paul’s faithfulness to the truth God had made known, it was reasonable that they commented on the need they would face in the local churches. This was never just an intellectual doctrinal issue. When God’s truth is compromised, when his character and worship are distorted, it effects the daily lives of believers and their families. It means real sacrifice of time, money and personal comforts.

Though it was costly to separate from the Synagogues, it was a price they must be willing to pay. God’s truth had to be preserved and promoted for the glory of him who made them and had saved them.

The True Church is gathered from many backgrounds and diverse personal interests. But together, united by a deep love for God, for one another, and for his truth, they are a true spiritual family. The church is the center of caring for one another, and for preserving the ministry of our Savior.

In writing in Ephesians 4:14-15, Paul described the deep inner love that unites us and drives us, “that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ –”

All through human history; under the power of Empires, Dictatorships, and corrupted elected leaders, through hard economic times, periods of horrible violence, disasters, and moral decline, through heresies, popularly distorted versions of the gospel, and open unbelief, the true church has persevered, and has rallied to care for one another as those who are redeemed.

The gospel is more than just evangelism of the unsaved, it’s the ministry of the risen Christ to those redeemed by God’s grace. He commissions each of us, even those who sometimes take the church for granted, to spend our time, efforts, and resources, to gather the lost into the spiritual family as they trust in the gospel, to befriend them, and then to care for them.

The church isn’t just another worship agency, mission board, social network, or charity. It’s the Kingdom of God, and a responsible spiritual family.

We stand together united, redeemed from different backgrounds, decades, and experiences. We are a spiritual family that will spend all of eternity united in the presence of our Savior. We hold onto, and hold out to others, a real answer to the needs that trouble, confuse, and deceive human hearts.

The gospel of Christ really sets us free not free to disregard the moral principles and promises of God’s word, but free to glorify God and to enjoy him forever.

(The Bible quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.)

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Studies in First Corinthians

by Bob Burridge ©2016

Lesson 13: 1 Corinthians 5:6-13 (ESV)

Dangers Within

When I was very young I remember getting an infection in a cut on my finger. Where I grew up back in the early 50’s we did not run to the emergency room for things like that. Some of us were still somewhat in the “dark ages” and used a lot of home remedies. My Dad was a medic in the army, but he was not always there to take over. One of my Grandfathers thought applying pipe tobacco was the best cure for cuts. But for my infected finger the treatment by one of my Grandmothers was to wrap it with bread soaked in milk. It’s a wonder I still have all my fingers. But in spite of all that, the infection went away. I give more credit to my body’s natural defenses than to the soaked bread.

But there were still times when we knew that the home remedies weren’t enough. Once while running through a field near our house, I stepped on a board with a nail in it. That rusty nail pushed right up through my sneaker and on a good distance into my foot. I pulled it out and hobbled home to get it treated. That time my Dad was there. It meant a trip to the emergency room to get a tetanus shot.

Though some of the old remedies were crude and might have done more harm than good, we knew that a little infection left untreated can be a disaster. Just one little bacterium can cause the loss of a limb or a life if it was allowed to multiply and spread.

A little contamination can spoil food, or ruin a good crop in the field. It does not take much to start with, but if left unchecked it ruins everything around it.

Anyone who has had a course in biology knows that micro-organisms grow very fast when they are in a place that supplies what they need to survive, and nothing is done to stop their growth.

There is always some level of what we call “germs” in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and on things we touch. Usually the immune system takes care of them before they become a problem. When they take hold, they multiply in us and make us sick.

This every-day physical principle has its counter-part in the spiritual world too.

The early Corinthian church was allowing
evil infected ideas and practices in the church.

In 1st Corinthians chapter 5 Paul deals with a particular case that illustrated the problem. One of their members was having an intimate relationship with his step-mother. That was something even beyond what the pagans allowed. What made it even worse, was that the church just accepted it and did not do anything about it.

In the first 5 verses Paul told them to remove this person from the church until he repented. The hope was that by delivering this member back into the kingdom of Satan, he would see the horrors and offensiveness of his sins and sincerely repent. If he was truly a redeemed child of God, he would humbly come back to the church repenting and ready to be restored.

But the church was not following this principle. Those impressive but deceptive leaders, were promoting dangerous ideas, and immoral attitudes that saw nothing wrong with incest.

But Moral permissiveness is also a danger
to the church, not just to the individual sinner.

6. Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?
7. Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.
8. Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

The Corinthians were actually proud, boasting about their tolerance of immorality. They thought it was mature of them to allow this moral liberty.

The fallen soul looks for ways to excuse its sins. It invents a strange sort of tolerance. They tolerate certain sins as acceptable, but become intolerant of those who remind them that it’s not acceptable. They attack those who try to follow God’s ways as if they were just narrow minded, old-fashioned bigots. They might even quote parts of God’s word out of context – which confuses things even more. They brag about being more tolerable, while intolerably condemning the faithful.

Paul compared this with how a little leaven effects a whole batch of dough. Making your own bread dough was a common daily process back then in every home. They knew that you add just a little bit of yeast, but as it sits it effects the whole batch of dough. Since everybody was familiar with this, it made a good illustration for spiritual lessons.

Some times leaven represented something good in Scripture, and some times something bad. In Matthew 13 Jesus compared the Kingdom of Heaven to leaven. It was to effect the whole world. But in Matthew 16 Jesus used it to show how the false teachings of the Pharisees and Sadducees was spreading its infection through God’s covenant nation and destroying her.

In this case, the leaven represented something bad that was infecting the whole church. The impurity was not only the fact that there was incest in the church. The impurity included the fact that the church was not dealing with it. Apathy toward real moral dangers is as corrosive and as deadly as the sins it allows.

He told them to clean out the old leaven. Their old ways were infecting the new life they had in Christ. The mission of Jesus was to defeat the poisonous infections of sin. His obedient life, and his death on the cross, purified his redeemed people from the old leaven to become a new batch of dough. When he paid for their guilt, it made them able to grow in godliness. One day, in the final resurrection, they would be set totally free from the power of sin. Now that they were given new life by God’s grace, they were not under sin’s bondage any more. There was no excuse for letting the old ways continue unchecked and unchallenged.

Paul dealt with them as true believers, but ones who were deceived and caught up in old habits. Satan loves to get our eyes off God’s promises, and get us distracted by the world’s values and ways. He loves to see the church back off on its offensive against sin. He wants us to neglect the hard duty of gently but bravely helping one another abandon sinful habits.

It takes a mature heart to cling to what’s right when wrong is so popular, and to dare to identify things God calls sin, when they’ve become accepted. Instead of proudly tolerating it, they need to purge it out.

Paul appealed to the real hope God had give to the Corinthian believers. Christ our Passover has already been sacrificed, and we are partakers of his victory. The Jews, even the superficial ones at that time, would not dare sacrifice and eat the Passover Lamb if the leavening yeast had not been carefully removed from their homes first. In the same way believers shouldn’t let the leaven of old sinful habits remain when they partake of Christ.

When we rest in his work of grace, the old leaven needs to be replaced with things that honor God. In place of the old ways of immorality and apathy about it, we should fill our hearts with the bread of God’s revealed truth. We should satisfy our hunger so much with the good and right things that we have no appetite left for the old ways.

But when things get out of hand,
there must be a separation from the unrepentant.

9. I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people–
10. not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world.
11. But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler–not even to eat with such a one.
12. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge?
13. God judges those outside. “Purge the evil person from among you.”

Evidently, Paul had written a letter before this. There’s nothing in the earlier part of this Epistle he could be referring to. Some think this might refer to a letter to Corinth which was not preserved in Scripture.

It’s also possible that he’s referring to his two letters to Thessalonica. Paul was in Corinth when he wrote them, so he might have made a copy for the Corinthians to read too. In 2 Thessalonians 3:6 Paul wrote, “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” The Greek word for “keep away” (“stellesthai” – ςτελλεσθαι) means “to avoid” or “to keep away from”.

And in 2 Thessalonians 3:14 Paul wrote, “If anyone does not obey what we say in this letter, take note of that person,
and have nothing to do with him, that he may be ashamed.” The original word for “nothing to do with” (“sunanamignusthai” – συναναμιγνυσθαι) means, “mingle, associate, mix together”. It’s the exact same expression he uses here in 1 Corinthians 5:9.

Paul didn’t want the Corinthians to misunderstand what he’d written before, or to misapply it. He did not want the manipulative teachers in the church to twist what he said as if it only applied to those outside the church.

Those outside the church, who were never admitted by profession of faith and by submission to the covenant sign of baptism, are not under the church’s authority. There is nothing the church has a right to exclude them from. They are in the hands of God to deal with them by the civil authorities, and by his own judgments. Our duty to the unsaved in the world is not to withdraw from them. God calls us to live in the world without being of the world. As Jesus said, we are to be light to the world, and salt to the earth. Paul did not mean we should withdraw to become an isolated culture of our own.

He was talking about how we should deal with a person who claimed to be a brother. This sinner was a member of the Corinthian Church, and no one challenged him. The dangerous teachers in Corinth were excusing the sin of incest in this case.

Paul was warning the church that they needed to deal with members who persist in immorality. If we faithfully and lovingly follow the steps in Matthew 18, as we saw in the previous study;

• We first try to counsel and encourage such a person privately as friends.
• If that does not help we discretely get someone else to help us convince them.
• If that fails the church represented by its Elders tries to get them to abandon their sins.

But when all this fails and the person rejects God’s ways and refuses to repent the church must take the final step of removing the person from membership.

The time had come to disassociate from this unruly brother. Since the person involved had already been confronted and persisted in his sin, and there was no one challenging the charges, it was time for the church to take the final step of excommunication.

This separation involves the whole church. It wasn’t just about his formal membership. The people were not to fellowship with him in the same way as if nothing had changed. It’s never easy to disassociate from those who were once part of our church family, even when they get involved with harmful beliefs and immoral habits. But it would be cruel to encourage them or let them think their sin was unimportant. It’s not unloving to withdraw from them. It’s one of the most loving things to do.

This isn’t personal shunning. Nobody has biblical authority to decide on their own to disassociate. But when the church judges them after the steps of Matthew 18 have been exhausted, it would be unkind to act as if nothing had changed. This is the method God commands and promises to bless. To avoid this hard process is to openly defy the direct teaching of God’s word.

This passage together with what Jesus taught in Matthew 18 shows 3 reasons for disassociating:

First: excommunication shows them the severity of their sins. It points out that their obedience is to the kingdom of Satan, rather than to Christ’s Kingdom. The hope is that by this serious action the person will come to his senses and repent. Restoration is always central in the discipline of an erring church member.

Second: By removing the incorrigible sinner the reputation of the church is preserved. No one should be able to point to the church as place where sin is hypocritically excused.

Third: By removing those who refuse to submit to God’s ways and to the authority of his church, a bad influence is removed from the congregation that could infect it’s weak members. If not removed, they would be like a contaminating leaven in the bread of the church.

The attitude we have toward excommunicated sinners is not the same as toward the world.

On the one hand, we treat the excommunicant in a way similar to how we treat the unsaved:

• We should treat them evangelistically, to lovingly call on them to come repentantly to Christ.
• We are to be nice to them and show the fruit of the Holy Spirit toward them.
• We have no business treating them with condescending pride or hatred.

On the other hand, there is a difference. We do not treat them exactly as we do the unsaved. These former members bear the sign of God’s Covenant; they were baptized. Just as with the circumcised of the Old Testament, this sign isn’t to be worn casually. Those marked out as Christ’s, but who consistently live as if they were still lost, bring disgrace on the church and confuse the purity God commands of us. There is always sin and imperfection in every Christian and in every church. But believers help one another deal with their sins, and encourage them to repent of it.

When church members persist in sin, and refuse to stop or to repent, they bear Christ’s name in disgrace. Therefore, we need to make it clear to them and to the world, that they no longer represent the church or show the work of Christ in their lives.

No one who is truly born-again can lose that eternal salvation. But we don’t judge the heart. God calls his church to look at the profession of faith and the fruits of the person’s life to determine if they should be considered part of God’s Kingdom on earth and admitted to the sacraments Jesus gave for his people.

When a person is put out of the church, we are not even to eat with him. He does not mean that there is some mystical contamination of their dishes, cups, or food like the Pharisees believed about the uncleanness of the Gentiles. But there is some sense in which fellowship around food is forbidden here in God’s word.

Some think it refers to not letting them join us in the Lord’s Supper. But that is included in the judgment of the Elders. That is what excommunication means. The warning here seems to go beyond this. It has to do with how the individual members of the church should treat the guilty person. Some limit this to fellowship meals sponsored by the church. But there does not seem to be anything in the context here that limits it that way.

So, taking it along with the other warnings in Scripture, it seems to mean that even in social contacts they must be clearly distinguished from the body of Christ. We should not sit down to fellowship around the table as if they were brothers in Christ. We treat them as if they were in need of salvation. But even worse than those who never confessed Christ, these have committed a deeper offense since they bear the covenant sign in disgrace. And if allowed to continue as part of the church family they bring in their spiritual subterfuge.

This is the leaven that needs to be removed. There is the leaven of those who commit outrageous sins without repentance, and of those who were urging them to be tolerant allowing these sins to be overlooked by the church.

There is a different kind of tolerance that should be in the hearts of God’s people. Instead of the world’s permissive tolerance that diminishes the offensiveness of sin. There ought to be an evangelical tolerance toward those unsubmissive to Christ.

• We humbly remember that they are the same as we would be aside from God’s grace. So there is no room for arrogance, only a cause for teaching, encouraging, and prayer.
• We lovingly urge them to repent and to come to Christ in submission to his authority.

On this basis we are there to humbly minister the gospel when the opportunity comes. But there must be no identifying such people with the church as if they were still part of it.

To be successful, this separation must be carried out consistently. When a person is removed from the church because of his unrepentance and rebellion, the other members need to support the judgment so that it does not seem trivial. All loving discipline is supposed to be hard on the person being corrected. Hebrews 12 is a classic passage about God’s principles of discipline. In verse 11 it says, “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.”

It’s not noble to ignore and enable sin in the church. This infectious leaven can destroy the testimony of a church to the world, and it can bring in bad influences where it can spread throughout the congregation.

The principles behind this final stage of discipline
teach us all some important things:

Bearing the sign of God’s covenant is not something to be taken lightly. We need to remember what it represents to us, to God, and to the world. When baptized members of Christ’s church persist in sin and refuse to repent, they dishonor the holy covenant they are called to promote.

And when we see others in the church who are comfortable living ungodly lives, we need to wisely, humbly, and lovingly do all we can to restore them.

There is a danger if we neglect our duty to preserve the peace and purity of the church. All communicant members of our churches (PCA) have publicly and before God promised to promote its peace and purity in the 5th membership vow.

The leaven of false teachings or immoral behaviors should never be overlooked. If we become aware of it, we need to personally and privately try to restore this person. If we do not succeed we need to get someone else to discretely help them. If this still doesn’t work, we need to report it privately to the church Session for their help. If that does not restore them, they must be removed from the church family until they repent. We all should support that judgment for the sake of restoring them as God commands us. And if they never repent, the church has been helped by removing a dangerous influence on us, our children, and those who come to worship and learn with us.

We can do our part to avoid it happening, by faithfully make use of the means God provides We diligently study God’s word to know what it says, and to recognize sin and doctrinal errors. We sincerely pray throughout every day for God’s strength and forgiveness. We attentively engage in every part of Christian Worship, specially regarding the Sacraments. And we faithfully do all we can to encourage one another as brothers and sisters in the Lord.

The church will never be perfectly free from sin. But we can be busy cleaning out the leaven. Infection needs attention. It should never be ignored: both the medical and the spiritual kind. Infections in our body should be cured, and in extreme cases the damaged part removed.

It’s the same with these spiritual infections. We first remove it from our own lives, and lovingly help others to overcome its poison, and when needed, we separate the unrepentant from the church for their own sake, for the sake of Christ’s name, and for the spiritual health of the spiritual family.

May God help us all to live pure and holy lives for the glory of Christ, and for the spiritual health of all those around us redeemed by grace alone.

(The Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.)

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Studies in First Corinthians

by Bob Burridge ©2016

Lesson 12
A Difficult Obedience

1 Corinthians 5:1-5 (ESV)

One of the problems we struggle against in our world is what I call the “Bo Peep Syndrome”. Her solution to the problem of lost sheep was to leave them alone and they’ll come home. Very different than the solution offered by our Good Shepherd who would leave the “ninety and nine” to seek out the lost sheep.

But ignoring a problem is the easy way only if we don’t look too closely. One of the ways parents harm their children is by being too permissive. They ignore correcting rude or selfish behavior figuring they’ll just grow out of it. The sad reality of it is that they do not just grow out of it. But it’s the easy way for parents to excuse being responsible and really helping their children. Sometimes it’s because parents never learned to discipline without being harsh.

One of the problems with modern approaches to education is a failure to teach responsibility. Teachers who let students do what they want usually lose control. They train students to be unable to get serious about a deadline or finishing hard tasks.

Political leaders often cater to the voters’ vices rather than promoting good policies. It’s easier to get votes by promising people what they want, rather than what they need. They are willing to let a society hang on to its sins, as long as they get elected.

World leaders often appease terrorists and rogue nations rather than stopping their evil. But if we reward lawless aggressors they just get more lawless and aggressive.

There are some things that are best left alone. However, where we have a God-given duty, we need to speak up and do what we can to help. When those God’s charged to help fail to do so, they are not just minding their own business, they are being irresponsible. They become co-conspirators with evil.

We all have a duty in the world to be light to dispel its moral and spiritual darkness, and to be salt to enhance its flavor and preserve it from the spoilage of sin. But in the church, among those who say they are Christians, we have a special duty to deal with sin and rebellion, even though it’s a very hard and difficult obedience.

Dangerous men had stolen the hearts of the Corinthian church. They intrigued God’s sheep with presentations that seemed very appealing. But when error rules in hearts, lives are left unguarded against sin. Wrong beliefs, values, and practices are excused with clever words. In Corinth, some very serious offenses against God were being overlooked, even permitted.

Paul’s letter now deals with those specific errors.

There was serious immorality in the church.

1. It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife.

Paul was very disappointed by reports he received about their church. Immorality was being tolerated and ignored among them. The word for immorality here is the Greek word “porneia” (πορνεία). We get our English words pornography, and pornographic from that Greek word. It refers to sexual activity that ignores marriage as the only right place for sex.

Any time sexual acts or thoughts go beyond the marriage bond, it’s immoral. It offends God, harms his people, and destroys the image of Christ and the church which marriage was instituted to represent.

Corinth was a very immoral community. That was its reputation in the world. Even the pagan Romans saw it as a city that had gone over the edge with sexual license. Many ancient Greek terms for immorality were based on the name of the city. The verb “to corinthianize” (Κορινθιάζειν) meant to have sex outside of marriage. Prostitutes were often called, Corinthian girls or Corinthian companions. The temple of Aphrodite on the Corinthian Acropolis sanctioned prostitution as a religious rite.

Though many Corinthians became Christians, they continued to struggle with this sexual liberty. It’s not easy for people to abandon the cultural standards they were raised to see as normal. Every day they were faced with temptations, and surrounded by attitudes they were raised with.

It’s not easy to overcome our past sinful habits, particularly when the world around us continues to accept and promote them. But they need to be overcome. It’s our duty to God, and to one another in the church.

This is why it’s important to avoid music, television shows, movies, magazines and web sites that trivialize the sanctity of marriage and promote sexual themes. They train the mind to dwell on these things, and influence our desires and values.

The answer of Scripture is in Philippians 4:8, “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”

Minds busy with moral things, things that honor God, will find it easier to avoid tempting thoughts, and to resist falling back into past sinful patterns.

The particular immorality that was being permitted was extreme.
It was the kind of thing of which even the pagan nations did not approve.
One of the members of the church was having an immoral relationship with his father’s wife,
probably his step-mother. If it was his actual mother a different word would likely have been used.

Of course there were some of the more barbaric cultures that allowed incest like that.
But even the sexually free Roman and Greek cultures did not allow that extreme.
Yet the church seemed to be tolerating it. They were doing nothing to correct the problem.

God’s word is very clear about this. Deuteronomy 22:30 says, “A man shall not take his father’s wife, so that he does not uncover his father’s nakedness.”

Some Rabbis during Paul’s time had invented a principle of their own that modified God’s law. Rabbi Akibah taught that converted Gentiles didn’t have to keep this law. Maybe this was part of the justification the Corinthians were using to allow this.

Like these Rabbis of the first century, many churches today follow dispensationalism. Similarly, it invents theories to make the moral law only apply to ancient Israel. We see churches rejecting the Creation Sabbath as if it was the same as the Levitical Sabbaths added at the time of Moses. Some promote fictional pictures of Jesus as if they could behold the Savior yet have no response of worship. Some today even allow sex outside of marriage. One by one the 10 Commandments are being rejected by false teachers in the churches. Of course these sins can be forgiven with sincere repentance, but they should not be excused.

Paul makes it clear. God’s moral principles do not apply to just one group of people or period of history.

God records this extreme case here for our instruction too. It teaches an important principle of church discipline. We need to preserve the purity of the church in every case.

The Corinthian church had not dealt responsibly with this immorality.

2. And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.

Their attitude was not honoring to God. Instead of mourning for the sin that had invaded their spiritual family, they were arrogant, proud of it. Just as we mourn for the dead, we should grieve when sin, the cause of death, moves in. Sin should not be defended, relished or excused. But in Corinth the spiritually immature church arrogantly allowed it among them.

The remedy is a hard one, but it’s what God demands of us. We have a responsibility to look after one another and encourage each other to do what’s right. This is how Jesus taught us to deal with sin among us in Matthew 18.

The first step should be a very private, humble, and personal attempt to help the person. In Matthew 18:15 Jesus said, “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. ”

If that fails, Jesus tells us to get some help but still to deal with the problem privately. 18:16, “But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses.”

If the person still ignores your encouragement and warnings the next step has to be taken. There comes a time when a person who persists in sin needs to be dealt with by the church. 18:17, “If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.”

Telling it to the church doesn’t mean making a public announcement. Throughout the Bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, God’s church, his covenant family, is represented by men ordained to be Elders. They act as a court of the church to make careful judgments according to God’s principles.

Their judgment has real God-given authority. Jesus said in verses 18-20, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”

This means that when the court of the church comes to a clear judgment, and they have followed God’s rules, God in heaven honors their decision regarding the church on earth. The court of Elders is responsible for admitting believers to membership and the sacraments. and for removing them from membership and the sacraments.

It does not mean they decide a person’s eternal salvation. It means either they bind them to the outward church as communicant members, or they loose them from the church and communicant membership.

When a person is removed, it’s because they failed to show evidence of regeneration. Their refusal to repent and abandon things clearly wrong according to God’s word, requires that we treat them as non-members, as those outside the church. But, what makes their rebellion even worse than the behavior of the unchurched, is that they bear the covenant mark of baptism.

The removal of members should never be done lightly. It’s always a last step. It shouldn’t be done harshly or with an arrogant judgmental attitude. It’s to be done humbly and solemnly showing Christ-like gentleness and compassion.

Church discipline requires decisive action to correct sin

3. For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing.
4. When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus,
5. you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.

Paul wrote this while in Ephesus, unable to be with the Corinthian church as it judges this case.
But he was present with them in the decision they had to make.
Even from this distance he led them in what they should have been doing, but were not.
There was no room for debate about the wrongness of what was reported.

Paul was careful not to name the person committing this incest.
But he made it clear that anyone who had done these things is inexcusably guilty.
Evidently the evidence in this case was clear and undisputed.

Paul gave his opinion as a formal judgment for them to approve in his absence.
1. It’s given in the name of our Lord Jesus. It’s by Christ’s authority, delegated to his church in Scripture, that the judgment is made.

2. The Elders should formally assemble to determine this case as a church court. Elders, Pastors or Apostles have no authority to judge on their own. It’s only when they are formally assembled that they bear the keys to the Kingdom of God. If found guilty the person must be removed from among them.

There are some who interpret these words differently. How is this person to be delivered to Satan? And how is his flesh to be destroyed so that his spirit might be saved?

These are admittedly hard phrases to understand. But the context here and in the rest of Scripture clears up the confusion.

There are some who imagine that this means some physical harm is to be done. Some have said the church had the power to curse him with some horrible disease. Others say they were to execute the guilty person. But how could executing the person save his spirit? How could they then avoid Christian fellowship with him as verses 2, and 6-13 imply? And who was to do this executing? Rome didn’t allow church executions, and the Old Testament Levitical justice system wasn’t transferred to the church. None of these explanations fits with the whole picture.

There is a far more consistent interpretation. A person removed from the church by the discipline of Matthew 18 would be considered part of the kingdom of Satan instead of the kingdom of God.

The word for flesh here is “sarx” (σαρξ) , it’s not the word for “body” which is “soma” (σωμα). Paul has consistently used the word for “flesh” in this letter to mean “fleshly lusts”. We would assume he means the same thing here. In the final day of judgment a person’s soul is not saved apart from his body. In the resurrection the whole person is saved, body and soul. But the Bible does say a person’s spirit can be saved, delivered from fleshly lusts.

Probably Paul means that:
1. By excommunicating the unrepentant from God’s kingdom they are delivering him over to the kingdom of Satan.

2. His fleshly lusts could lead a straying believer to spiritual conviction. This would stir him to end (destroy) his fleshly desires leading him to repentance, and restoration.

A note on this verse in the old Geneva Bible says, “The goal of excommunication is not to cast away the excommunicate that he should utterly perish, but that he may be saved, that is, that by this means his flesh may be tamed, that he may learn to live to the Spirit.”

This view seems to fit best with the testimony of God’s word as a whole.

This was one of the purposes of the harsh action of excommunication.

The hope of discipline in the Spiritual family, at every level, is to restore the wandering sheep.

The world advises permissiveness and tolerance. That’s the easy irresponsible way. It only makes sin easy and leaves its destruction and poison to spread and devastate.

God’s way is sometimes a difficult challenge. But the right thing must be done. For the honor of God, for the purity of the church as it shines as a light to the world, and for the reclaiming of those sinking in the grip of sin we need to do the hard things, though we do them humbly.

It’s the right thing to do, the good thing, the hard but loving thing. It’s the way God tells us to reach out to the renegade soul.

True self-less compassion is often very hard. But we need to bring ourselves to do the hard things even toward those who may be the least appreciative at the time. Yet we dare not hesitate to do what God promises to bless.

We are thankful that this last stage of discipline does not take place often. But the first stages of positive encouragement and kind, humble correction, are the way we regularly try to help one another as a spiritual family.

We should never let the infection of sin spread in the hearts of those we love, not our children, our spouses, our friends, or members of the church. As for ourselves, we need to keep our own hearts pure and honoring to God. Sometimes that means listening humbly to the warnings of Christian friends, or the warnings of the church. This is how we shine as lights to the world and keep Christ’s family a good testimony to the world.

(The Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.)

Back to the Index of Studies in 1 Corinthians

by Bob Burridge ©2016

Lesson 4
Power from the Holy Spirit

Acts 2:1-4 (ESV)

After the crucifixion and resurrection, Jesus appeared alive for 40 days. During that time he taught his disciples about the Kingdom of God. That had been the center of his earthly ministry, and continued to be the theme of his resurrection lessons.

The kingdom had been symbolized in Israel. They were given written copies of the laws of God’s kingdom. They were told that becoming a child of God was not earned. It came by faith, trusting that God would adopt them. The temple worship was to show that Messiah would come to take up our offense to satisfy God’s justice. Their leaders were to show submission to God, their King. They were to be a noticeably different people. They and their children were to be marked out as belonging to God’s kingdom.

But the kingdom would be seen even more clearly in the Apostolic church. They would have a complete Bible: the promises and rules of the Kingdom. They were reminded that becoming a child of God was not earned. It came by faith, trusting that God would adopt them. The church sacraments would show that Messiah had already come and satisfied God’s justice. Their leaders would show submission to God their King. They would also be a noticeably different people; not for their outward customs, but for their love and moral living. They and their children would be marked out as belonging to God’s kingdom.

But they were not ready yet to spread the good news and to build his kingdom. First they must go back to Jerusalem and wait. God was going to send the Holy Spirit to make them able to do their work. Then Jesus ascended and disappeared into a cloud. He returned to the throne of heaven to reign forever at the right hand of the Father. The disciples obeyed. They returned to Jerusalem, chose Matthias to replace Judas, and waited in prayer, fully expecting God to be faithful to his promise.

The day of Pentecost had come – Acts 2:1

1. When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place.

Pentecost was the 50th day after Passover (7 complete Sabbaths plus one day; Leviticus 23:15f). The “first-fruits of the wheat harvest” (Exodus 34:22) were presented to God. Later the Jews also made it a celebration of the anniversary of the giving of law on Sinai (Exodus 19:1).

Many Jews gathered in Jerusalem from all over the Empire for the feast. It was about ten days after Jesus’ ascension. Almost 7 weeks since his resurrection.

While the disciples were gathered together in one place the promised Spirit came suddenly upon them. We do not know where they were gathered. Some think they were still in the upper room. Others say they had gone to the temple area where the thousands were converted upon hearing Peter’s sermon. (:41)

Certain physical events took place with the Holy Spirit’s coming.

2. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
3. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them.
4. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

These were symbols of of the coming of God to bring judgment and life.

There was a noise like a strong rushing wind. We do not know if there really was a wind or just a sound like the wind. It does not matter. The symbolism of wind remains.

Wind was often a symbol of the Spirit’s invisible work. The word translated as “spirit” is “pneuma” (πνεῦμα). It can also mean breath, breeze, a current of air, wind. The same word is translated as “wind” in John 3:8, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” In that verse Jesus used the wind to illustrate to Nicodemus how the Spirit moves invisibly in those born again by God’s grace.

In Ezekiel 37:1-14, the Prophet described his vision of the dry bones. He saw a valley filled with the remains of dead men. But when the wind blew on them they took on flesh and became alive. God said the dry bones represented Israel, dead in sin and corruption. The wind represented the Spirit coming to breathe life into Israel.

This special Pentecost was a fulfillment of that prophesy. Physical Israel had become spiritually dead. The Spirit came to revitalize the faithful into a renewed living spiritual nation.

Flames of fire filled the house, and rested on each person. John the baptist said Jesus would baptize in a new way. He would baptize with the Spirit and in fire. (Matthew 3:11, Luke 3:16)

We all know how God showed his divine presence to Moses in the burning bush (Exodus 3:2ff). Now his presence was seen in raw flames. The flames came on each individual, showing that in this new age, God’s presence would not be represented in a Temple in Jerusalem, but in the lives of each believer.

They all began to speak in other languages. The Bible warned that Judgment would come if Israel as a nation fell into unbelief and sin. Deuteronomy 28:49 said, “The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand” When God was ready to judge Israel it would be by a foreign nation, and they would hear foreign languages. Isaiah 28:11 adds, “For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the LORD will speak to this people.”

The hearing of foreign languages would be a sign of God’s judgment on Israel. He would use a Gentile nation to finally end the perverted sacrifices in the temple defiled by wicked Priests. It was Rome that was used to finally destroyed old Jerusalem and the Temple in 70 AD.

The time had come when the Jewish era was ending. A greater era, including believers from all nations, was beginning. The Jews should have realized this meant their dominance was over. Those who persecuted the followers of Christ should be alarmed – the sign of Judgment had come.

As the gospel spread to the Gentiles this sign was repeated in various places. They spoke in other languages confirming their inclusion in the New Zion, the Spiritual Kingdom of God’s True Israel. (Acts 10 & 19)

At Corinth there were abuses that had to be corrected. But even there, tongues was a sign to unbelievers of God’s judgment ending apostate Israel. 1 Corinthians 14:22, “Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.”

Tongues were given only for the founding of the Apostolic church. Tongues were a supernatural means for God to display his judgment ending the Jewish era. That that happened almost 2000 years ago, it would serve no purpose today. It marked the beginning of the non-Jewish, Gentile era. Once the Apostolic Church was established, tongues would have no purpose.

The charismatics today misunderstand the biblical meaning of this supernatural event. They make tongues a sign of something very different.

How can the Holy Spirit come when, as god, he is already always with us? God fills all space, all the time. He’s “omni-present”. Since the Holy Spirit is God he’s always been everywhere. His coming wasn’t that he came to where he hadn’t been before.

The Holy Spirit’s always ministered to believers. Ever since the fall of man in Eden, humans have been inclined toward evil. The only way they could repent, have true faith, obey, or understand spiritual things, was if the Holy Spirit was at work in them.

The Old Testament often credits the Spirit of God as the One who enabled God’s people, and gave them spiritual understanding.

They were all filled with the Holy Spirit

Some new relationship must have begun at Pentecost. Before Pentecost the Holy Spirit must have regenerated lost humans by God’s grace, indwelt saved humans to specially minister to them, produced the fruit of the Spirit in them. Otherwise these things could not have happened. But the Spirit’s filling seems to have been more rare then.

When someone is “filled” with the Holy Spirit, they are specially enabled to do something God calls them to do. He filled the kings to rule well over Israel. He filled the Prophets to speak accurately the word of God. He filled the Priests when they had special jobs to do.

But after Pentecost the Holy Spirit became available to fill all believers. Since we all reign with Christ, we are called kings and princes. There are no prophets today. Instead we’re all called to testify to God’s prophetic word in our Bibles. There are no Priests today. Jesus was the last Priest who made the last sacrifice. We are all called to tell about how he paid for sin as the final sacrifice all the previous ones foreshadowed.

As the Holy Spirit specially filled kings, prophets and priests, today he is available to fill us all with his power as we carry out our various jobs and kingdom work.

This coming was also called a “baptism” of the Holy Spirit. When we baptize with water one of the things it symbolizes is that the Holy Spirit descends upon each believer when they become a child of God. We sprinkle or pour water when we baptize because that’s how God’s law required baptisms to be done. It symbolizes the coming down of the Spirit on us.

John the baptist said in Mark 1:8, “I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” The letters of the New Testament make it clear that Spirit Baptism occurs with every believer once, when God regenerates them.

Pentecost was the first such baptism of the new era. We do not expect the same results today, such as fire and speaking in tongues, each time the Spirit comes. There would be no reason today to warn ancient Israel of coming judgment, and the beginning of a new age. It’s already happened.

But Spirit baptized believers are not all always filled with the Spirit.

The filling of the Holy Spirit is a continual need for us all.

Filling involves repeatedly coming under the Spirit’s enablement. Ephesians 5:18 says, “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” Literally it could better be translated, “be being filled …” as a “durative present tense verb”. Tht is, we are to be under the Spirit’s control in our work just as someone would be under the control of alcohol if he drinks too much wine.

On various occasions the same people are said to be filled with the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. It’s not a once-for-all event like Spirit baptism. It’s a repeated need. We always need to be coming to Christ for Spirit enablement as we go about the work he calls us to. A church can only be empowered by the Holy Spirit, when its members as individuals are empowered by the Spirit.

The filling of the Spirit comes with prayer. Luke 11:13 tells us, “… how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.” Prayer is a means God established for that filling.

We should pray for the Spirit’s filling for each skill we need in our work. To approach our daily obedience to Christ without prayer for the Spirit’s enablement is like trying to do your best work without eating well or getting enough sleep. Before you attempt to work, stop and pray for the Spirit’s enablement. Be specific. Ask Him to empower you to do each thing you attempt to do.

The filling of the Spirit demands a consecrated life. Ephesians 4:14-32 is a long section about moral conduct. It forbids us from being selfish, unforgiving, deceitful, unkind, etc. :27, “give no opportunity to the devil.” :30, “do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God”

Jesus called us to live morally obedient lives. In John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep My commandments.” Obedience also means that when we sin we come to Christ in humble repentance for forgiveness. Moral obedience is itself an evidence of salvation. It is not salvation’s cause. We are saved by grace through faith. But when we are morally disobedient, we are not being good tools for the Spirits use.

God may withdraw his Spirit’s enablement when there is moral disobedience. That’s what worried David in Psalm 51:11 when he prayed, “… take not your Holy Spirit from me.” He was not afraid he would lose his salvation, that’s not possible. He was not afraid the Spirit would be absent from his part of creation, God is everywhere.

But David had just sinned with Bathsheba. He remembered the king before him, Saul. When he sinned God took away the blessing of Spirit enablement. He became a pitiful king. David did not want that to happen to him too.

If we are to succeed in our work for Christ; in obeying him, showing his lordship, telling others about the good news, then we need to be first enabled by the Holy Spirit.

Before we see the power of the Holy Spirit empower a church, we must have the Holy Spirit empower the individual members of that spiritual family.

God calls us as individuals to serve him. We need to sincerely and diligently ask God for the filling of His Holy Spirit. We should plead with Him that he’ll enable us in whatever we do to honor Christ and to promote His kingship. Work on eliminating every moral hindrance from your life.

(The Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.)

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Studies in First Corinthians

by Bob Burridge ©2016

Lesson 7: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16 (ESV)

Greater Things To See

God has called us to live in a very hostile world.

It’s not just war, crime, and immorality that challenge us here. All of nature itself was effected by mankind’s fall in Eden. This is why natural disasters, diseases, and physical disabilities strike without favoritism. Some are born with handicaps and are blind, unable to walk, hear, or speak. Often disasters and disabilities can be compensated for with training or modern technology.

But there’s a disability no human effort can overcome. The afflicted are not even aware of it. It’s a spiritual disease that infects everyone from the moment of conception. It makes us unable to see things as they really are, and to respond to situations the way we should. It distorts and confuses things, and makes it hard for us to get along with one another.

This is why there is such a serious breakdown in communication about things that really matter. We do not always see what others see, and we do not all share the same basic values and goals. The lost world we live in does not comprehend the basic truths about God and life itself.

Those who are redeemed by God’s grace have a challenging responsibility. A duty goes along with the gift of spiritual sight. They need to rise above the illusions that fill our world to see and tell about how God works through all the wonders he’s made.

There were divisions growing in the church at Corinth. Outside influences had crept in. The attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors of the Christians were becoming confused.

Paul wrote to expose the danger, and to help them get back to living by God’s truth. There were some among them who loved to promote themselves, and to steal God’s glory. But to correct the problem, they should not use the alluring ways of the confused world. The world sees God’s methods as foolish and unworthy of consideration. Christians are to tell about how God fulfilled his ancient promise, how he came in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to redeem his people, how he lived a morally perfect life in their place, and died the death they deserved for their sins.

Paul began the 2nd chapter by warning them that the gospel shouldn’t be dressed in the clothing of the world to make it effective. The world persuades by manipulation, threats, and by appealing to our yet selfish feelings. God’s way is to transform hearts by the power of the work of Jesus Christ. This is the foundation for living by true wisdom, instead of by the fraudulent wisdom that surrounds and influences us in this fallen world. The great discoveries and magnificent accomplishments of man fail in this most important need. They can not really change what drives people to do corrupt things.

There are wonders in God’s world – great truths and wisdom,
and we dare not miss them.

6. Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.
7. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.
8. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9. But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him”–

This godly wisdom should not be kept as a secret. We have an obligation to tell what is true, to impart what God says, whether people believe it or not. Those transformed by God’s power will appreciate it, and those who remain in their sad state of corruption will not. If they understood God’s true wisdom they would not have crucified Jesus, the Lord of glory. Generally the fallen world prefer leaders who lack this true wisdom.

In this sense God’s truth is a mystery. It’s translated as “a secret” in the ESV. The KJV says, “we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery.” The Greek word is “mustaerion” (μυστήριον). It means something that remains unknown and hidden until it’s made known. It can not be discovered from what nature and providence displays about God. The universe, the flow of history, and man’s conscience tell about God’s nature, and about our moral duty to obey and honor him. But it does not reveal the way of restoration through the Savior so they can admit what they reveal. That is made known by God’s Special Revelation perserved in his word, and it’s our job, the duty of God’s people, to make it known.

The Apostle’s challenge here is to believers, the beneficiaries of this message. He calls them the mature ones. This does not mean they are all fully grown up spiritually yet. The original Greek word, “teleios” (τέλειος), is translated “perfect” in the King James Version. The word mature is a closer word in English. The word Perfect goes too far. Paul is talking to those who have reached some goal or level of accomplishment.

Here they are not contrasted with weaker Christians, but with those who are unsaved. These are the only two groups of people in this part of his letter. Later Paul deals with immature Christians who were being influenced by the unbelievers. But that’s not the comparison Paul is making in this passage.

All believers have reached that for which they were made. They are made able to fulfill their human purpose: to glorify of God and to enjoy him forever. They are matured into what God created humans to be. We all have a lot of growing and maturing to do as we improve in our sanctification. But redeemed believers are matured from spiritual death into spiritual life.

Those who remain lost can not possibly appreciate things as they really are. Paul used familiar words taken from Isaiah 64:4 and 65:17. The eyes of the unredeemed are blind, and their ears are deaf to God’s real wonders. They can not even imagine an infinite, eternal, and unchangeable God. They neither want nor know of a Savior who took up the sins of those who offended him, to make them into his beloved children forever. The world we live in has a different expectation of what God’s message ought to be.

But, regardless of what the majority believes or accepts as true, there are wonderful things for God’s people to behold and to experience. It is tragic when our eyes are diverted by the distractions of corruption. It keeps us from seeing our Good Shepherd’s hand at work in our lives and all around us.

But Paul wanted them to know that his message was not his own.
It came directly from God.

10. these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.
11. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
12. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.
13. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

It’s dangerous to prefer being manipulated into a false sense of security when things are really not ok.

So instead of being taken in by the deceptive promises the world imagines as hope, our confidence should rest in what God himself makes known by the Holy Spirit. Our Bible, not the feigned wisdom of human thinkers, intellects, and promoters, leads us through the choices and circumstances we face every day. When we follow God’s path, we discover the wonderful things he’s given us to behold in life.

It’s not wise to expect to get truly good advice or to learn about a sound moral foundation from those who are not submissive to the teachings of God’s word. Yet so many run after one trendy promise after another. Like lemmings so many follow bad counsel over the brink of destruction.

Paul warned in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 , “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”

There’s a reason why the unredeemed,
the majority in this world, are unable to understand.

14. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.
15. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.
16. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

The depravity of fallen man is not just a cold doctrine. It’s a tragic truth. Those born without sight, hearing, or limbs can learn to be productive and successful in life. But those who remain in their spiritual disability can only find substitutes for real inner joy. The truth about God and man’s true lostness are repulsive to him, so he follows after religions designed to appease his fears and to give him a false hope. He busies himself with hobbies and vocations and indulges himself with material wealth. But he has no concept of the things of the Spirit of God. He does not like those things. He can’t see the value in them.

Spiritual truths are spiritually discerned. The original word “anakrino” (ἀνακρίνω) means to scrutinize. It’s to look something over very carefully, to investigate, and determine what it is, and to determine it’s worth. A spiritually dead person doesn’t have the capacity to see the real value of things. The redeemed have that capacity.

The same word is used in verse 15. The fallen world does not only mis-judge spiritual values, it doesn’t rightly understand or appreciate the redeemed believer. The natural man, as we all are except for God’s grace, is puzzled by true Christianity.

The majority of churches that call themselves Christian today do not respect God’s word. They show little evidence of this spiritual discernment. Many today teach that Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses never really lived. They say they are just made-up mythical characters invented as folk tales. Many teach that Paul and Peter included their own prejudices in their writings. Many seminaries and popular books suggest alternatives to the unpopular teachings of these Apostles. Many say the moral teachings of the Bible are outdated. This is why we see many denominations ordaining homosexuals to the ministry, and supporting same sex marriages.

They add stories of alleged modern miracles that promote the worship of saints, angels and Mary. They imagine mystical priestly powers that remove sins by their own powers or by the sacraments. Many talk of Jesus as if he was just a great martyr whose senseless death should simply inspire us. Some talk of him as if he was unable to control his own destiny.

Recently, the there has been a fascination with so called “faith-based ” shows and movies. Most of what we see, hear and read about Jesus is not found in the Bible.
It comes from speculation, mystical visions, and the pronouncements of unbelieving theologians. Promoters and commentators say Jesus was against the idea that there is only one way to heaven. They seem unaware that Jesus said he is the only way, and that those who don’t believe in him perish.

Jesus is even used in promotional advertising to advocate things he clearly opposed. He has been used as if he was against the military, and eating meat. Stories in the media about the Shroud of Turin have said it’s “one of Christianity’s most sacred .. relics.” But biblical Christianity recognizes no sacred relics.

The unfortunate success of the film The Passion of Christ is another example of confusion. While it contains some biblical material, it’s slanted by things added from outside the Bible. Much of the movie is based on visions of a Westphalian nun, Anne Catherine Emmerich. In the late 1700’s she claimed to have had visions of Christ’s passion. Producer Mel Gibson cites her book Dolorous Passion of Our Lord as a helpful source and one of his inspirations for the film. In keeping with Roman Catholic mysticism, Mary, the mother of Jesus, is presented in the film as sharing in Jesus’ suffering and atonement as a co-redemptrix or co-redeemer with Jesus. She has a mystical awareness of his presence and pain, and had powers over the Romans. The film adds a Romanist tradition that Jesus argued with Satan in Gethsemene, and it adds characters from the apocryphal books and mythical legends.

The movie The Young Messiah is partly based on material from “The Infancy Gospel of Thomas”. In that later apocryphal book the boy Jesus used his powers to kill children in the neighborhood, and he playfully made clay birds and brought them to life.

Just as it was in Corinth, today we have a confused blend of truth with fiction. When you add a lie to a true story, its whole meaning changes.

The truth about Jesus has been changed and edited to fit with what people would rather believe. His entire mission is distorted from what the Bible says it was. Whatever sells relics or books, raises money, and packs meeting halls becomes the doctrine of this synthetic religion that fits what the crowds want to hear.

Sadly this is the only Jesus many hear about and understand today. The victorious and living Savior who promises inner peace and victorious life to his people, and who rightly judges those who refuse to trust in his finished work alone, is not only missing from popular notions of him,
he is openly rejected, and his followers are called narrow-minded bigots.

In contrast with these distortions, Paul says we have the mind of Christ. The mind of God — truth as he knows it to be — is revealed to us in Scripture. What makes it clear to us is the work of the Holy Spirit on our otherwise hardened hearts. By grace the barricade of our guilt is removed because Jesus lived, suffered, and died in our place. The Holy Spirit specially ministers understanding to regenerated souls through the plain self-evident teachings of the Bible.

There is a wide gap in understanding between God’s people, and those who remain lost spiritually. It’s neither that we work from different dictionaries, nor that the one has a lower IQ than the other. It’s a far more fundamental difference. The regenerate have a transformed nature that rest on a different foundation for truth.

As verse 14 says, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.”

But this fact of depravity is not a wholly negative reality. It shows the overwhelming power of grace that works in the undeserving who are redeemed. Our regeneration didn’t come from someone who convinced us, or by circumstances in our lives. It did not come because we were smarter, or better educated. It came from God who works supernaturally as an evidence of undeserved love for his people.

God has prepared wonderful things for his children beyond anything our senses can perceive. Redeemed eyes can see things to which the world is totally blind. The ears of transformed souls can hear what they missed before grace made them alive. Even the imagination of the heart is set free from the chains of sin. The wonders of God’s true provisions are no longer barred from entering into their hearts.

Those regenerated by grace are made able to behold the wonders which God has prepared for his children.

How can we cope with these distortions,
and serve Christ in a world so vastly different?

We need to rest in and take advantage of God’s promises which are ours by his Amazing Grace. Do not consider a day well spent, if you haven’t read or considered what God has said in his word. That word alerts you to the errors and lies that want to deceive you. Pray diligently not only for the sick and needy, but also for your own spiritual health. Dare to walk boldly where the light of God’s truth leads you, rather than to stumble along the twisting rocky route laid out by the world. Keep in meaningful contact with others who are redeemed by God’s grace. Be an encouragement to them, and be encouraged by their friendship. Open your eyes to the wonderful things God has promised and done. Exercise your self in them. Tell others about them. Trust fully in them.

What we see in the world around us is what we would be like if it was not for that grace which is greater than our sins. It should not surprise us that the world works hard to create a false Christianity. It distorts the way of salvation, gives us a mythical savior and an uncertain system of morality. It does not matter that the redeemed are a minority. There is nothing wrong with being a minority, if it’s God’s minority. He has chosen the weak things of this world to confound the powerful.

Stop to consider the way things really are – the things the mighty of this world fail to see. Look around and see the hand of God at work, where fallen hearts see only chance, human choice, and the blind laws of physics.

Let these familiar words of Jeremiah 32:17 direct us to what God reveals to his people, “Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”

(The Bible quotations are from the English Standard Version unless otherwise noted.)

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Five Alone

(The Five Solas of the Reformation)
Faith Alone
(watch the video)
by Bob Burridge ©2014

Faith is the only thing we are called upon
to exercise in being restored to fellowship with God.

The grace of God uses faith as its means when it works in the heart. God implants a trust that rests in his promises and love. By that faith our otherwise unworthy hearts lay hold of Christ’s work of redemption. Paul summarized this in Ephesians 2:8-9. “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Grace is the cause and Faith is the means by which the atonement of Christ is applied for our Justification.

People often talk about faith in a way totally alien
to what it means in God’s word.

People talk about faith in the economy, faith in political promises made during an election cycle, or a faith that hopes everything is going to work out somehow. They dismissively say, “Just have faith.” Faith is often understood as a hope in things totally irrational and contrary to reason. Even if they know something isn’t true, faith becomes the self-deceiving attitude that believes it anyway. There’s a mechanism built into our minds that at some point resolves that certain ideas will be trusted and acted upon as being true. There is a broad sense in which that may be called faith.

A study of the words translated as “faith” in the Bible is helpful.
The Hebrew word used in the Old Testament for faith is aman (אמן). The root-meaning of the verb is “to confirm”, “to support”. In the Niphil form it means “to be made firm or sure, established, verified” which in the moral sense is “to be reliable, trustworthy”. In the Hiphil form it means “to regard as firm or trustworthy, to place trust in, or to have confidence in”. The Noun form is emunah (אמונה) which means “firmness, steadfastness, fidelity, or faithfulness” (as in Habakkuk 2:4).

In the New Testament the Greek Noun for faith is pistis (πιστις): “trust, reliability, faithfulness, promise, confidence”. In its basic Verb form, pisteuo (πιστευϖ), it means “to believe, to trust, or to entrust something to someone”.

These were common words used in every day conversation in reference to putting trust in something. They did not always make reference to religious matters.

When we trust in something, our confidence is based upon some type of information. In this broad sense we can speak of “faith” in three ways:

1. There is a purely rationalistic faith
It is based upon information that comes to us through our natural senses. It is stored in memory where it can be recalled. It can then be used in making decisions, and drawing conclusions about situations and questions we face. When we use this information we first evaluate how trustworthy each piece of information is. To make that decision there are some assumptions we accept. We assume that the source of our information is reliable, that the rules of reason we are using are sound, and that we are not being influenced by conclusions we have reached which may not have been soundly reasoned out. As we make decisions and draw conclusions we assume that the information we have is sufficiently complete, and that all possible alternative explanations without exception have been identified and ruled out. The soundness of our conclusions depends upon the truthfulness of our information and how we make use of it.

a. One kind of rationalistic faith is a scientific faith.
It draws general conclusions from our experiences, then applies the generalizations to specific cases. For example we decide to sit in a chair trusting that it is dependable based upon our past experiences with chairs. That is a perfectly normal way in which we put our trust in things in the physical world around us. Since spiritual issues do not come to us by physical observations and measurements, they cannot be evaluated by a purely naturalistic scientific method. When the Bible and the Gospel are evaluated this way, decisions may be drawn about what we discover there, but this is not a Saving Faith.

b. A testimonial faith
This is when we trust something to be true because other people tell us that it is true. We might try a new brand of toothpaste because of claims made by ads or by friends. We might accept medicines because of a Doctor’s advice even though we don’t know how they actually work.

c. An historical faith
This is a trust in something to be reliable and true based upon past records, and surviving material evidence.

d. A miraculous faith
This faith believes that things have happened which must have been supernatural. It remains a rational process because it simply adds those events it sees as miracles to the pool of information from which they reason. Belief that Jesus could heal the sick and control nature does not necessarily include a trust that he was the true Christ, God the Eternal Son, and the Redeemer. They merely assent to observed or recorded facts. Those with a “miraculous faith” may even believe that they could personally benefit from miracles performed by God. That is not a saving faith.

2. There is a purely irrationalistic faith.
This approach has no interest in determining the absolute reliability of something. Evidence is not expected, and often the search for it is looked down upon. It chooses simply to hope in what appeals to the person’s present feelings and disposition. This faith is sometimes spoken of by the imagery of taking “a blind leap into the dark.” Absolute truth is seen as neither an attainable nor a necessary thing. What is perceived in the mind of the person becomes his reality and truth at that time.

Some say they trust in Jesus Christ, but believe that he might not be God, or have really risen from the tomb. They believe in him as a good teacher or inspiring example, perhaps even as a miracle worker. They believe the Bible, but not as an inerrant book. This faith, though “religious” is not a Saving Faith. All these ways by which people come to trust in things are most fundamentally contrary to the faith God says justifies us through Christ.

3. There is also a saving faith.
This is a confidence implanted supernaturally by the Holy Spirit into the souls of the elect in their regeneration. This faith receives as true and reliable whatever the person learns God has said and done. This faith is first evidenced in a person when he confidently rests upon the atonement of Christ for salvation.

There are then, two ways to speak of saving faith. It is both the faculty implanted into the soul by grace that enables it to trust what God makes known, and it is the exercise of that faculty to trust in the revealed truths received from God.

John Calvin summarizes many of these ideas in his definition of saving faith (Institutes 3:II:7), “(Faith is) … a firm and sure knowledge of the divine favor toward us, founded on the truth of a free promise in Christ, and revealed to our minds and sealed on our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”

People commonly call it “faith” whenever anyone decides something is reliable without objective evidence. But saving faith is not common to the human nature in all its states. The fallen soul has no ability to perceive as true or to embrace what God has made known about the universally fallen human condition and the provision of Christ for salvation. (Note Romans 3:11, 1 Corinthians 2:14, and John 6:44.)

Saving faith is rational, but is not limited to information obtained by our senses and personal reasoning. Saving faith is not irrational because it affirms that truth is a real objective quality because it expresses things as God sees them and has revealed them to regenerated hearts through the ministry of his word.

Saving faith is not present in all people.
Human-centered theology denies that sin limits our ability to perceive and to believe what we experience. It denies that saving faith is a supernatural gift. It holds to the idea that all faith is either a rational choice based upon gathered sensory information, or it is an irrational leap in the dark.

The Bible presents faith as neither of these. It is a supernatural gift of God’s grace whereby we are convinced of the reliability of God and his promises. Paul’s prayer for the persecuted Thessalonians is found in 2 Thessalonians 3:2, “and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith.” Paul had just referred to faith as a gift of grace (2 Thessalonians 2:13). This same idea is clearly expressed in Philippians 1:29.

The Elements of Saving Faith

Reformed theologians have divided saving faith into various elements.
1. Some divide saving faith into two parts.
A. A. Hodge calls them assent and trust. By assent he means giving intellectual recognition to what the Scriptures reveal about the person, offices, and work of Christ. By trust he means implicit reliance upon Christ, and Christ alone, for salvation. This saving faith, according to A. A. Hodge, is an act of the whole man, his intellect, affections, and will.

The Heidelberg Catechism, in question 21, also divides what it calls true faith into two elements. They are a certain knowledge by which all that God reveals is received as truth, and a personal hearty trust in the promises of the gospel concerning forgiveness of sin, everlasting righteousness, and salvation by mere grace for the sake of Christ’s merits.

2. Some divide saving faith into three elements.
They are: knowledge (notitia), assent (assensus), and volition (fiducia).
a. Knowledge is the learned information available to be trusted. Faith must be “in” something. Trust cannot be exercised without an object. In Saving Faith, the object is the learned information God reveals in his word preserved in Scripture about his work of redemption through Christ.

To provide this knowledge, the content of the gospel must be presented to the unbeliever in the process of evangelism. The teachings of the Bible must be explained to believers in the process of their sanctification.

b. Assent is agreement that what God has revealed as true. The contents of God’s word should not just be known as facts. There must be an accepting that the facts are true just as God revealed them.

c. Volition is a decision to personally trust and appropriate the truths of the gospel. It is the act that embraces Christ as Savior and therefore as Lord. Louis Berkhof wrote that this includes, “.. a surrender of the soul as guilty and defiled to Christ, and a reception and appropriation of Christ.” (Systematic Theology pg. 505). Berkhof adds, “the seat of (saving) faith cannot be placed in the intellect, nor in the feelings, nor in the will exclusively, but only in the heart, the central organ of man’s spiritual being, out of which are the issues of life.”

A helpful example is given by James.
James 2:19, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe — and tremble!” The word for “believing” in that verse is the same word translated as “faith” [pisteuo (πιστευϖ)]. The demons know the fact that there is one God. They may even assent to the truth of what God says. It may make them tremble when considering the truth of it. They have knowledge, and assent, but they do not appropriate it. They cannot submit to it personally. Without the element of volition enabled by grace, faith in Christ is not Saving Faith.

Some misunderstand Hebrews 11:1.

The first verse of Hebrews chapter 11 is often understood to be an exhaustive definition of faith. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

When read outside of its context some assume that it’s saying that faith is irrational, that it’s not based upon facts. have fun — A close examination of that verse shows that this is not the case.

It is a practical definition, not a strict definition of what the word “faith” means. This verse is explaining what a true faith accomplishes in us. Hope is not the foundation of faith. It’s saying the opposite. Faith is what gives our hope substance. It’s not unseeable things that are the evidence of faith. Faith is the evidence provided for those things which we cannot see.

The verse begins with the word “Now.” This connects back to the previous chapter. In Hebrews 10:38 the writer quotes from the prophet Habakkuk. The verse quoted is Habakkuk 2:4, “The just shall live by faith.” The prophet had learned that instead of questioning God when troublesome things occur, we should live by faithfully trusting in his promises.

In Habakkuk, the word translated “faith” is the Hebrew word emunah (אמוּנה), which most accurately means “faithfulness.” Literally the Habakkuk passage could be translated, “The righteous will live through his faithfulness.” Those justified by God’s grace will live by faithfully trusting in God’s provisions and promises, not by trusting in his own understanding or perception of things.

The first part means that faith is “the confident reality of things hoped for”. True faith gives us confidence in the reality of the things God has promised. It applies God’s words to us personally. When the Holy Spirit implants this saving faith, we realize the value of the promises of God to his children. This produces a great expectation, a true hope. God will not go back on his word. He cannot lie.

The second part means that faith is “the establishing of things not seen”. There are things we cannot take into the science lab, things we cannot see, touch, or measure. The rationalistic method is not able to establish spiritual facts. Saving faith convinces us to accept and to trust God’s word simply because we know God said it. This inward evidence is more assuring than all the scientific demonstrations we may observe. It comes from the work of the Creator upon the heart of his creatures.

This text rules out the false meanings of faith. We are left with what God says about it. It is that firm conviction which comes from the Holy Spirit. It assures us that God has spoken clearly with written promises we can count on, and by which we can live.

Saving Faith is a Work of the Holy Spirit.

Since the unredeemed are able neither to discern spiritual truth, nor to seek after the true God (Romans 3:11, 1 Corinthians 2:14, 2 Corinthians 4:4), saving faith must be implanted into the unworthy by a supernatural act of the Triune God.

The gift of saving faith originates in God’s eternal decree judicially based upon the work of Jesus Christ as Redeemer. This is why it is called a grace exercised toward the elect.

Acts 13:48, “Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.”

2 Corinthians 4:6, “For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God”

Ephesians 1:17-18, “that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints”

The application of the faculty of faith is attributed particularly to the work of the Holy Spirit. It is listed among the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22.

Note also the following texts:
1 Corinthians 12:3, “Therefore I make known to you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed, and no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.”

John 6:44-45, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”

The faculty of faith is ordinarily established by the instrumentality of the inspired word, and is directed toward the promises revealed in Scripture as the Spirit works. We desire to see faith evidenced in others as we declare the word of God to them, and pray for the work of the Spirit upon their dead hearts to grant life through the atonement of Christ.

Romans 10:13-17, “For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’ How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘LORD, who has believed our report?’ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”

The Work of Faith

The Scriptures repeatedly speak of our being justified and saved from the wrath of God by means of this implanted faith. It is the single condition stated regarding the salvation of the believer.

Acts 10:43, “To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”

Romans 3:22-25, “even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,”

Galatians 2:16, “knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified.”

Galatians 3:26, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 3:9, “and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith;”

2 Timothy 3:15, “and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.”

The faculty of Saving Faith enables the elect of God to believe to the justifying of their souls. It produces a trust in what God has revealed in his word. This trust is anchored in divine authority alone. God’s warnings stir the redeemed to act upon what God has promised, and to thankfully obey his commands. The soul is restored to fellowship with the once offended Creator by the removal of the offense of sin. That produces life for the glory of God. As Jesus said in John 7:38, “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.”

Principally faith is the accepting, receiving, and resting upon Christ alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace (WCF 14:2).

Faith is also a moral act. The lack of it, unbelief, is denounced as sin. It is rooted in the decree of reprobation which passes over those not elected and leaves them to reject Christ and the word of his grace.

John 3:18-19, “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.”

John 8:24, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

Saving Faith is a Growing Faith

A temporal faith is not a saving faith. It is like the seed of the word that falls upon stony ground. It may cause excitement for the moment, then it dies out and reveals that it is not the gift of redeeming grace. It is only the evidence of God’s restraint of sin in the person, and produces a momentary outward appearance of blessing.

Matthew 13:5-6, “Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.”

Matthew 13:20-21, “But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.”

A true saving faith grows as evidence of the life that God stirs within. It is not perfect in this life, but advances until it becomes complete in union with Christ in glory. Since it is here incomplete, it must exist in varying degrees of advancement.

The means of its growth are what we call “the means of grace”. They are the ministry of the word of God, the faithful exercise of worship (particularly the right participation in the sacraments rightly administered), and the diligent use of prayer conducted according to God’s instruction. These are encouraged in the believer by his membership in the church of Christ directed by the Shepherds called by God, gifted to the task, and ordained for the edification and discipline of the sheep.

For further study consider the lesson of Jesus in Matthew 17:14-21, Mark 9:14-29 and Luke 9:37-43.

We are Justified by Grace Alone, through Faith Alone,
by the work of Christ Alone.

It is not what you do, but what Christ has done, that makes you trust in the gospel. When grace works in your heart, it stirs you to trust in the Savior’s work. That implanted trust is what God honors when he declares you innocent of your sin, and declares you innocent through Christ.

If you trust in anything else added — any ritual, inheritance, work, or personal sacrifice — you do not have a biblical saving faith. Many churches have abandoned grace and biblical faith as things that stand alone. Grace is made into God’s sentimental tolerance for all people, and for all sincere beliefs. Faith is made into an irrational hope or personal decision. These ideas are not what is taught in the Bible when it stands on its own.

When we add false ideas to the gospel, we produce another gospel. We must rest our salvation upon God’s Grace alone, through Faith alone.

Bible quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

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Five Alone
(The Five Solas of the Reformation)

Grace Alone

(watch the video)
by Bob Burridge ©2014

Combining even true pieces of information in a wrong way can change their truth into a deception. At the time of the great Protestant Reformation about 500 years ago, some basic truths had become confused.

One of the great efforts of the Reformation was to reexamine ideas that were commonly accepted. By the 16th Century, truth had become lost in a swamp of church dogmas and mystical beliefs. God’s basic truths were being put together irresponsibly and mixed with errors. That diluted and changed their meanings completely.

By returning to the Bible as God’s word, the Reformers found 5 primary things that had to be separated out to restore the true message of God’s word. These became the slogans of the Reformation: Five Things That Should Stand Alone. The Latin word for “alone” is “sola”, so sometimes we call these the Five Solas. They provided a focus so clear that even the simplest worshiper could learn them.

So far we have looked at the first of the Five Solas, “Scripture Alone” (Sola Scriptura). Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

The Bible is the only source we have by which we can know what God says it right and true. Information or ideas from any other source is just guess-work or theory. It should not be treated as being reliably true. It’s this standard for truth, the Inspired Scripture, that clears up how we are saved from the guilt of our sins, and how we ought to live to please God.

The next three Solas show how those who have offended God are redeemed. We are saved from what we deserve only because of God’s grace. The saving faith that grace implants in our otherwise unworthy hearts is the means God uses in us as we lay hold of Christ’s work of redemption. The Apostle Paul summarized this in Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

The first of these three “solas” is Grace Alone (Sola Gratia)

It’s grace alone that restores us to fellowship with God. Grace is a very broad and general word. In the New Testament it’s a translation of the Greek word “Charis” (χάρις). It’s used over 170 times in the New Testament.

When it describes how we are made right with God, it is used in a very particular way. Paul made this clear when he described salvation by Grace.

Romans 11:5-6, “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.”

As members of a race fallen in Adam, we justly deserve God’s wrath. The fall into sin corrupted the minds and hearts of all humans descended from Adam. Therefore, no one is able on his own to do anything truly “good”, much less anything that could remove his guilt.

It’s God’s good pleasure alone, nothing else added, that is the cause of blessing and salvation. It’s not our decisions, our deeds, or our determinations that qualify us for spiritual life. It’s neither the Church, nor the Sacraments that bring God’s favor to some and not to others.

The redeemed are chosen in Christ before anything was even created.

Ephesians 1:4-5. “just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will”

Believers were chosen by grace alone,
before they had done anything good or evil.

This is the point Paul was making in Romans 9. There he was showing the proud Jews that they were originally no better than the Gentiles. It was God’s grace alone that chose them to be his national people, and to be custodians of his truth.

Abraham had been chosen by grace alone, for nothing in him or that he had done in his life. God chose just one of Abraham’s sons and just one of his grandsons to illustrate that same sovereign choice.

Romans 9:10-12, “And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one man, even by our father Isaac (for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of Him who calls), it was said to her, ‘The older shall serve the younger.’ “

From all the lost families of the earth God chose the family of Abraham. Then he chose only the seed of Isaac to carry on that promise. But not all of Isaac’s descendants were of the promise either. Of his twin sons, Esau and his descendants were not to be part of the nation of God.

Every Jew knew this. God chose only the line of Jacob, who was called Israel, to be the chosen Nation. Both of his sons had the same father and mother. They were twins. This was to make clear that the choice was based upon God’s sovereign choice alone. Not all in the outward family were chosen to continue the special promise. The one twin was chosen, and the other was not. To further show the sovereign nature of the choice, the younger was chosen not the older. That was against the usual custom and God’s general law of primogeniture.

God does not base his choices upon anything outside of his own eternal purpose. He makes it very clear that the choice was not based upon anything the sons did or would have done themselves. The determination was eternal, before they were even born. It was by Grace Alone.

Remember, Paul is using these obvious choices and rejections of the visible nation to show that a similar election of God takes place in the invisible covenant nation. If God didn’t intend to include all the physical line of Abraham and Isaac in his visible nation, then certainly it’s foolish to imagine that all the visible nation was to be saved eternally. That was never promised in the ancient Covenant of God.

God’s promise to Israel had not failed. The Jews had misunderstood who the true Israel was. Those who rejected Messiah, and who had perverted the temple worship and sacrifices, were not true sons of God by the spiritual promise. They were only outwardly and by appearance the visible nation of God.

God’s promise had exactly succeeded, once that promise was properly understood.

Paul quoted from the Scriptures to show that God’s choice
to love some and not others is by grace alone.

Romans 9:13, “As it is written, ‘Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.’ “

Does this mean that God loved the one and hated the other? Yes, that is what it says.

Paul quoted directly from Scripture. Malachi 1:2-3 had said, ” ‘I have loved you,’ says the LORD. ‘Yet you say, “In what way have You loved us?” Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?’ Says the LORD. ‘Yet Jacob I have loved; But Esau I have hated, And laid waste his mountains and his heritage For the jackals of the wilderness.’ ”

Those who want to believe that God loves everyone have a problem here. They make this saving grace to be something extended to everyone, not just to some. If that’s true, then grace doesn’t stand alone. Something else needs to be added to make it effective in an individual’s life. This assumed idea requires the plain words of this verse to be understood in unnatural ways, otherwise they must admit that salvation is a sovereign work of God’s grace alone. That is something the fallen human heart cannot admit or fully comprehend.

Several theories have been suggested to explain away the plain statements of the Bible.

Some say that “hate here (שׂנא – sanae) must only mean that God loved Esau less than Jacob.” That only brings in more confusion. It’s clearly not what the same words mean in Amos 5:14-15. There it says, “Seek good and not evil, That you may live; So the LORD God of hosts will be with you, As you have spoken. Hate (שׂנא – sanae) evil, love good; Establish justice in the gate. …” Does God want us to love evil less than we love good? That would be absolute nonsense.

If it only means that God loved one less than the other, what would that possibly mean relative to the point being made? If God loves some less than others, then what causes that distinction? The same problem remains.

If God loves every created individual (which is never said in Scripture), what would love mean? Does God love Satan and the fallen angels just a little less than he loves the angels that remained faithful to him? Does he love the pagans just a little less than he loves the redeemed? If love is common to all, then it means nothing special to any.

Besides, If we can also do that to the idea of “hatred” in this verse, how can we make sense of the next part that says that God loved Jacob? Does that mean he only hated Jacob less than he hated Esau? You can’t make God’s hatred to be anything less than what the word hatred means, while at the same time you keep his love as really love. Such a tangled confusion denies the plain meaning of these very simple words. The love behind God’s grace is special and directed to some, not to all. And it is not based upon human merit. It is the good pleasure of God alone that chooses some to be the object of his blessings.

So some have tried another approach. They suggest, “Perhaps hate just means that God slighted him”, or “treated him with an act of hatred“. Does this mean that God slights people he nevertheless loves? Does he treat them with an act of hatred when he doesn’t actually hate them? This solution causes more confusion than it’s imagined to eliminate.

We need to remember that God’s hatred of Esau is nothing more than what we all deserve. Jesus took on the cause of hatred toward certain ones to satisfy the demands of holy justice for them. That was an act of redeeming love that did not fail. It saved all those Jesus came to save. No one the Savior came to redeem is lost. They are redeemed by God’s good pleasure, not by anything God is impressed with in the individuals.

These foolish attempts to re-interpret the meaning of this text fail completely. Such ideas do not fit Paul’s purpose in explaining God’s rejection of national Israel. It was not a breaking of his ancient promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Those denying the obvious meaning of this verse often reference 1 John 4:8. They quote the part that says, “God is love.” The problem is that this verse is not making a complete identity between God and love. It is not saying that the words “God” and “love” are interchangeable concepts. The point is that God defines what love is, not that our idea of love defines God for us. Love is one of the attributes of God, but it is not his only attribute. He is also just, holy, wrathful, and many other things as revealed to us in his word.

We should never use our confused human feelings about love to explain God. Rather God shows us what love is by his redeeming undeserving people by Grace Alone. God is the original. All other true love is derived from him. God’s love promotes his glory and furthers his eternal design. So our love should promote the same. That is John’s point. We who do not love as God loves, have not really known him. (1 John 4:8)

The Bible also makes it clear that God hates the workers of iniquity. Psalm 5:5 says, “The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate (שׂנא – sanae) all workers of iniquity.” Then in John 3:36 John the baptist said, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life; and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.”

Some have tried to save this idea of universal divine love by saying, “Isn’t it God’s love that sends daily provisions for the wicked?” However, that is not what the Bible calls it. When Paul speaks of that in Acts 17 at Athens, he calls it a display of God’s long-suffering, not of his love or grace.

When the wicked receive God’s rain and sunshine, they imagine they deserve these things. This only condemns them more because of their self-centered view of life. Daily care for the world in general is not done out of love for the wicked. It is not an act of Saving Grace. It is to display God’s power, and to provide a livable world for his own children. The world is sustained as the stage upon which he makes himself known both by his undeserved blessings and by his judgments and wrath.

There are some who with great sincerity explain that God loves the sinner but hates his sin. While true toward his redeemed children, it’s way too general a statement. Sin can’t exist without a sinner. To hate some abstract idea of sin when detached from the person doing it does not explain why there are those God says he hates and fits for his wrath. If persons are not personally responsible for their own acts, there is nothing left to hate. It’s true that God loves those he chooses to redeem yet does not like it when they sin, but that is a far more narrow statement. No where in the Bible does it say that God loves all sinners while he hates only their sin.

Part of the problem is that some have a wrong idea of hate. Hatred is not sinful. Biblically, that which is sinful ought to be hated (Amos 5:15). But in us fallen creatures, our hatred of evil is often mixed with evil itself. In God it’s not. We horribly distort God if we see his love as his only or dominant attribute. God is not only love. He is holy, just, and consistent. He judges as well as blesses. If God does not hate he is not the God of Scripture.

In loving Jacob God shows his grace, his unmerited favor toward him. In hating Esau he acts justly toward him. That is what he and all humans, even Jacob, deserve. Even in John 3:16 God’s love for the corrupted world order does not promise to save everyone. In that verse the love of God sends a Savior to redeem only those who believe. And believing is not possible for any aside from the gracious work of God’s Holy Spirit. The Spirit applies the atonement of Christ to remove the offense and to reconcile. Without that grace, Jacob would receive the same deserved hatred as would we all. Any godliness or faith seen in the creature is due only to the distinguishing grace of God.

God chose Abraham and his seed from all the fallen race, but not all his descendants were chosen. Only Isaac was chosen. It was by Grace Alone. Not all of Isaac’s seed was chosen either. Only Jacob was chosen. It was by Grace Alone. His brother Esau was rejected and cursed. Even of the 12 tribes of Jacob (Israel) not all were the spiritual seed of promise. Only a remnant will be saved. It’s by Grace Alone.

This becomes evident as Paul continues to develop his point in the remaining verses of this section of Romans. Romans 11:5, “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace.”

Those rejecting Jesus as the Messiah were not of that chosen remnant of Israel. God only intended to redeem the “children of promise”.

In Galatians Paul leaves no doubt about this fact. Galatians 3:29, “And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”

Right beliefs and good deeds aren’t the cause of your salvation. They are evidences of it. The cause is God’s grace alone. We owe even our repentance and faith only to that grace. Personal pride has no place in the believer’s heart.

To make your self right with God, eternal and perfect justice demands that the full price of your offense must be paid. If God allowed people into fellowship with him while the guilt remained it would violate his own nature and the principle of Justice. To remove the guilt, Jesus Christ suffered and died in the place of all those given to him by the Father (John 6:37). If you are redeemed, it’s because of that grace alone, not by anything foreseen as superior in you over others.

Grace is that intent and act of God that convinces a person to trust in Christ’s provision. All humans are by their fallen nature unable too understand God’s truth or to trust his promises. If left to themselves to be convinced to repent and believe, none will desire to do so.

1 Corinthians 2:14, “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

Salvation is never earned or triggered by man. It is a pure gift, unearned and undeserved. It is ours by grace alone.

If we add other things to grace, then it is no longer grace. It’s not God’s love combined with your good choice or judgment. It’s not your good deeds, or the sacraments of the church that qualify you for heaven. Grace stands alone as the cause of your restored fellowship with God through Christ.

It is personally destructive and eternally dangerous to think we need to add to grace. Nothing you do aside from the work of Christ can pay the infinite debt you owe for your guilt.

Romans 3:10-12 makes it very clear that we cannot, and therefore will not even believe if left on our own.

“As it is written: ‘There is none righteous, no, not one; There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one.’ ”

The lost might want to be saved from hell out of fear, or to find inner peace out of frustration. They might even accept the moral teachings of Jesus as a good standard for living. But they will not confess their total inability, and need for God’s provision for sin in Christ. The shallow person who says he is a believer in Christ might want blessings, and comfort. He might want to be delivered from some disease, or from financial needs. He might even want to attend church for social and personal advantages. But if Christ hasn’t changed his heart, he won’t want to be right with God out of humble gratitude for an undeserved grace that has worked true faith in him.

The inward change by God’s grace regenerates the lost soul and produces saving faith. Until that change is first worked in us, there can be no faith in Christ.

That’s a humbling yet liberating fact of the Bible. God is the one who saves us, not we ourselves. This leaves no place for human boasting, and no room for fears of not measuring up.

You don’t have to be better than most of the other sinners out there in the world. We are all guilty and fully deserving of eternal damnation — except for the gracious work of Christ , and the gracious act of God to apply it to our otherwise unwilling and always unworthy souls. Even our faith is his work too.

As we see other believers who are yet imperfect, we need to remember that our duty is to help them embrace God’s ways, not to judge them or to criticize them.

If it’s all by grace, we are all unworthy sinners mercifully grafted into the family of God. God gets all the glory for all the blessings and promises we enjoy now, or hope ever to receive.

Bible quotations are from the New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

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