Grasp the Bible

The two Baptist confessions in this episode are the London Confession, found here, and the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, found here.

We will return next week to the Book of Galatians.

Welcome to episode 152 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapters 4:12-20. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• Live in Freedom from the Law: Argument from Friendship 

Key takeaways: 

• Paul has become like the Gentiles…he is free from the law. Therefore, it makes no sense for them as Gentiles to live like Jews and to submit to the OT law. 
• Paul did not think his diseases and sufferings should be separated from his calling as an apostle. The weakness of Paul, manifested in sickness, was the pathway by which Christ’s strength was manifested through him. 
• The Galatians are faced with a choice: Either they follow the Judaizers or Paul; either they show zeal for the true gospel or the false gospel that requires circumcision. 
• Paul was deeply puzzled over the Galatians’ attraction to Judaism and the OT law. He was not completely sure what to say, and yet his feelings of perplexity did not paralyze him. 

Quotable: 

• Love responds to people where they are, not where we might hope them to be. 

Application: 

• God’s regular pattern is to display His strength in and through the weakness of His servants. 
• Zeal is a commendable quality, as long as it is directed to the right object. If one is zealous for what is good, one’s life will be pleasing to God. 
• One of the great attractions of the church is the love and service shown for one another. As fellow believers we are one body. Therefore, our love is not limited to those who share our same education, race, or social class. 
• The beauty of Christ is reflected in the humble and glad suffering of its messengers.  It is the gladness and courage of the messengers, despite the pain in their bodies, that heralds the goodness of the gospel to the world. 
• Love is anchored in the real world, tackling the problems people face, and it does not give up on others when they are not where we expect or hope them to be. 
• We exhort those who are struggling because we love them, and we realize that there is a struggle in the Christian life. 

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Welcome to episode 151 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapters 3:26-4:11. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• Sons of God are Abraham’s offspring (3:26–29) 
• Argument from slavery to sonship (4:1-7) 
• The Folly of Reverting to the Law (4:8-11) 

Key takeaways: 

• Believers are all children of God through faith, and they are all one in Christ. 
• Faith in Christ is what qualifies one to be a member of God’s people. 
• The period of infancy and immaturity refers to the era of salvation history when the Mosaic law was in force. According to Paul, the reign of the law has ceased with the coming of Christ.   
• Jesus lived obediently to God’s law, whereas all others violated God’s will. As the one who lived under the law, he took the curse of the law on himself so that he could liberate and free those who were captivated by the power of sin. 
• The fundamental proof and evidence that the Galatians are truly God’s adopted sons is that God has given them the Holy Spirit, and their sonship is expressed by their claim that God is their Father. 
• The Galatians are relapsing back into paganism, but in a most remarkable way, for their relapse manifests itself in their desire to subject themselves to the Mosaic law. 
• Life “under law” is characterized as one in which human beings lived under the dominion and tyranny of sin. 
• Before one becomes a believer, one is enslaved to that which is not the true God.  Conversion is described as redemption, as being freed from the mastery and tyranny of sin. 

Quotable: 

• God’s family comprises solely adopted sons and daughters—there are no natural-born sons or daughters in his divine household. 

Application: 

• All those who are united to Christ are equal as members of Abraham’s family.  Therefore, the church should not be marked by social classes and cliques. 
• In His own wisdom, God determined when the Son would be sent into the world. If God rules over history, we can trust Him with the particulars of our lives as well. 
• The fundamental error of unbelievers is their failure to know and praise and thank God, and hence they turn instead to self-worship and adulation of the creature rather than the Creator.  Those who do not know God give worship to someone or something else instead of to the one and only true God. 
• Those who are saved demonstrate their new life by continuing in faith until the last day. Their perseverance in faith functions as the evidence that they have truly come to know God. 

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Welcome to episode 150 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapter 3:15-25. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• The Temporary Nature of the Mosaic Covenant (vv. 15-18) 
• The Purpose of the Law (vv. 19-25) 

Key takeaways: 

• If even human covenants are irrevocable and cannot be supplemented, how much more a covenant given by God. In other words, the covenant with Abraham cannot be revoked by a later covenant, nor can additional stipulations be added to it. The covenant with Abraham stands as it was given originally. 
• The promises made to Abraham have become a reality in Jesus Christ. 
• the Abrahamic covenant focuses on what God does for His people in saving them, while the Mosaic covenant accents human obedience. The Abrahamic covenant celebrates God’s work in delivering His people, whereas the Mosaic summons human beings to keep the law. 
• Paul argues that the law was given to increase transgressions, that it was intended to be in force only until the Messiah came, and that the presence of a mediator shows that it is inferior to the promise. 
• The law was always intended as an interim arrangement. 

Quotable: 

• The law says: Do this. The gospel says: Accept this. 

Application: 

• Those who belong to the family of Abraham do not enter into his family by subscribing to the Mosaic law. They are children of Abraham when they are united to Christ Jesus, the offspring of Abraham. Hence, they receive the promise as a gift. 
• Under the promise, the inheritance is obtained as a gift of God’s grace, whereas under the law, the promise is secured through human obedience. 
• The law revealed how people should live, but it did not provide the power to enable human beings to live in a way that pleases God. Righteousness would have indeed been through the law if human beings had been able to keep its prescriptions. 
• Most secular people, and even many religious people, believe that moral education is the pathway to humane living. If we can only succeed in teaching “morals,” justice and truth will prevail. Paul’s view of the law and the goodness of human beings is much less optimistic. The law is not the solution but part of the problem. 

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Welcome to episode 149 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapter 3:1-14. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• Paul defends the gospel by experience:  The reception of the Spirit (vv. 1-5) 
• Paul defends the gospel using Scripture:  Abraham and faith (3:6–14) 

Key takeaways: 

• Paul argues that the Galatians have received the Spirit. He concludes from this that they are justified by faith instead of by works of law.   
• The Spirit is the sign that one belongs to the people of God. 
• Believing—not doing—was the pathway to receiving the Spirit. 
• Since the Galatians have the Spirit, they are members of the new people of God. They are part of the family of Abraham, and hence they do not need to observe the Torah. 
• Abraham’s faith was what constituted him as righteous before God. The Galatians, then, do not need to be circumcised to be Abraham’s sons. They are already his children if their faith is in Christ Jesus. 
• It was God’s intention from the beginning to bless the Gentiles, as long as they exercised the same kind of faith as Abraham. The Gentiles receive the blessing of Abraham provided that they believe like Abraham. 
• Those who do not do everything enjoined in the law are cursed.  It is the failure to do all that is written in the law that condemns, not the desire to keep the law! 
• The curse of the law lies on all people since the law demands perfect obedience. 

Quotable: 

• Faith alone is the only way to be right with God. We cannot do anything to merit or earn God’s favor. 

Application: 

• Both justification (being declared right before God) and sanctification (the lifelong process of being conformed to Jesus’ likeness) are due to the Spirit’s work and are the result of faith. 
• The Christian life is a battle to rely on the gospel, and even as Christians we are inclined to look to ourselves and trust in our own achievements rather than relying solely on the cross of Christ. 
• Righteousness by faith is taught in both the Old Testament (OT) and the New Testament (NT). It is not as if OT saints were right with God on the basis of their works, while NT saints are righteous by faith. Paul argues clearly here that Abraham was justified by faith. Therefore, salvation in both the OT and the NT is by faith alone. There is only one way of salvation. 
• Legalism is silly and shallow because it is attempted by people who have not and cannot keep God’s commands, and yet somehow they still think they can put God in their debt. 
• Law obedience, then, is contrary to faith since it is predicated on obeying instead of believing to obtain salvation, on performing what is required instead of trusting God’s work in Christ.  The attempt, then, to be righteous by keeping the law is fundamentally opposed to believing, to trusting what God has done in Christ for justification. 

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Welcome to episode 148 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapter 2:11-21. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• The need for Paul’s rebuke (vv. 11-14) 
• The nature of Paul’s rebuke (vv. 15-21) 

Key takeaways: 

• Paul’s public reprimand of Peter was warranted because Peter’s sin was committed in the public sphere, and it had public consequences in that others followed his example. 
• Peter, by refusing to eat with the Gentiles if they did not keep the food laws, was, in effect, compelling the Gentiles to live like Jews to be part of the people of God. 
• Peter and his friends did not act out of conviction but were motivated by fear. 
• If members of the covenant people (both Peter and Paul) need to put their faith in Christ to be right before God, and if they cannot be righteous in God’s sight by keeping the law, then it is senseless for Peter to require Gentiles to observe the law for them to have a right relationship with God. 
• Reinstituting the law transgresses God’s will because it denies that righteousness is in Christ and returns to the old era of salvation history.  Therefore, to reach back to the law for righteousness constitutes sin since it denies righteousness is in Christ. 

Quotable: 

• Human beings do not stand in the right before God by observing the law, but only through faith in Jesus Christ. 

Application: 

• Even the most spiritual and advanced Christians, like the apostle Peter, are still liable to sin. No Christian reaches a point where he or she is without sin, and even if we are experienced Christians, we may sin in significant ways. 
• None of us live a solitary life. Our sins always have an effect on others. 
• As believers, we are responsible for both encouraging and rebuking fellow believers. 
• No one can stand before God on the basis of what they have done. Salvation is of the Lord, and it is received by faith alone. 
• Righteousness cannot come via the law. If it did, then Christ’s death on the cross is superfluous. Christ’s self-giving on the cross would be completely unnecessary, for right standing with God would be attained through observing the law rather than by trusting in what God has done in Christ to grant salvation. 

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Welcome to episode 147 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapter 2:1-10. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• The reason for the visit (vv. 1-2) 
• The result of the visit (vv. 3-10) 

Key takeaways: 

• Paul did not need the Jerusalem apostles to endorse his gospel because he received it directly from Jesus. 
• If Paul’s gospel diverged from that of the apostles, then his work would likely unravel when the view of Jerusalem became known in the churches Paul planted. 
• According to the Old Testament, circumcision was required to be part of God’s people. Those who refused circumcision did not belong to God’s covenant people. 
• Paul argued against circumcision, stating that it turned back the clock on salvation history...to the time before Jesus. 
• Requiring the law for salvation does not free people from sin but places them under the reign of sin. Reverting to the law is a yoke of slavery because human beings cannot keep the demands of the law. 
• The Jerusalem leaders did not establish Paul’s authority; they only recognized that God had given him such authority. 

Quotable: 

• Any theology that ultimately locates salvation in ourselves and what we do or accomplish is a false gospel. Salvation is no longer the work of God but represents our work, and therefore, we become idolaters who are praised for our contribution. 

Application: 

• Requiring observance of the law changes salvation from being a work of God to a work accomplished by human beings. So, salvation is no longer of the Lord.   
• Living under the law brings bondage in the sense that it does not free people from the slavery of sin. Grace brings freedom, for it does not depend on human beings for righteousness. Therefore, we are freed from depending on what we do as the basis of salvation. We look to Christ alone for his redeeming work. 
• We should not venerate any human leader. We are to love the leaders God has placed over us without worshiping them. We should not despise them when we see their faults, for we all fall short in many ways. 

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Welcome to episode 146 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we continue our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapter 1:11-24. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• The gospel’s source (vv. 11-12) 
• Paul...the persecutor (vv. 13-14) 
• Paul...the missionary (vv. 15-17) 
• Paul’s relative obscurity in Judea (vv. 18-24) 

Key takeaways: 

• If the messenger can’t be trusted, then neither can the message. So, Paul defends himself to defend his gospel. But how? With autobiography. 
• In Galatians, Paul affirms that the central elements of the gospel were given to him by Jesus Christ on the Damascus Road. 
• Before Paul was converted, he was convinced that his persecution demonstrated his zeal for God and His righteousness.  
• Just as Isaiah and Jeremiah were called to be prophets, so too the Lord appointed Paul to be an apostle. 

Quotable: 

• It is important to realize that our zeal and sincerity do not mean that we are necessarily right. 

Application: 

• Our life, changed by the gospel, is our best argument for the truth of the gospel. We are our best argument. 
• While our callings may differ from Paul’s, those Christians who assume that God is uninvolved in their lives could not be more wrong. Each of us is special to Him and “called according to his purpose.” 
• We all must make sure that both the beginning and the end of our ministries are entirely centered on God rather than on our reputation or status among people. Too many Christian leaders are motivated more by the acceptance of others than by their desire to please God. 
• Sometimes, we domesticate the gospel and forget it is itself the power of God. 

Connect with us: 

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Welcome to episode 145 of Grasp the Bible.  In this episode, we begin our study in the Book of Galatians, covering chapter 1:1-10. The series is called “Free.”  Today, we will cover: 

• The greeting:  Paul’s apostolic authority (vv. 1-5) 
• Desertion from the gospel (vv. 6-10) 

Key takeaways: 

• Paul’s apostleship did not come from a person but from God and Christ.  Therefore, the gospel he proclaims is true. 
• The Galatians were turning the clock back in salvation history by submitting to circumcision and the Mosaic law. Since Jesus has been raised from the dead, believers are no longer under the Mosaic covenant. 
• The grace and peace that come from Jesus Christ are rooted in his self-giving at the cross, where he suffered in the place of believers so that they would be forgiven of their sins. 
• The Galatians, by turning to the law and circumcision, have departed from the gospel of grace to one based on human achievement rather than a divine gift. 
• There is only one gospel and only one way of salvation. Paul pronounces an eternal curse on any who preach another gospel. 

Quotable: 

• The gospel equation is this: Jesus + Anything Else = Nothing! 

Application: 

• A right relationship with God is not obtained by circumcision but only through trusting in the cross of Jesus Christ. 
• Jesus, the only righteous One, died on the cross as our substitute so that our sins could be forgiven based on his sinlessness. 
• The real tragedy of apostasy is this: we desert God. To apostatize is to forsake the living God for a dead idol, a golden calf of our own making. 
• As we strive to move forward in the Christian life, we must remember that we need to go back—again and again and again—to grace. We’ll need to go back to grace in order to move forward in life. 
• An effective antidote against false teaching is both a head and heart knowledge of the gospel. 
• Any theology that posits works as the basis of our relationship with God is not the gospel of Christ. 
• It is far better to be a slave of Christ than to be enslaved to human opinions of us. 

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As we prepare to study the Book of Galatians, we take time today to explore the who, what, where, when, and why the book was written.

Next week, we will study chapter 1.