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BIBLE
STUDY LESSON
For
the week beginning Sunday December 29, 2019
FREEDOM
IN CHRIST
Galatians 5:1-15
Whenever we turn to the LORD, the “veil” that prevents us from
understanding the truth is removed. Our minds are no longer hardened, and so, then
we begin to perfectly understand the things of GOD, that we had previously
failed to comprehend. This veil can only be removed by the “SPIRIT”, whenever
we start to believe in the “Risen SAVIOR”, JESUS CHRIST. “And now the LORD is
that SPIRIT, and wherever the SPIRIT of the LORD is, there is “freedom” (2
Corinthians 3:17).
Everyone who has had the veil removed can then be “free” to be the
mirror that brightly reflects the glory of the LORD JESUS CHRIST. And as the
SPIRIT of the LORD works within us, we become more and more like GOD, and
reflect HIS glory even more to others in the world, through our behavior.
Here in Galatians chapter 5, verses 1-15, Paul reminds the Christians at
the Church in Galatia of their newly found “freedom in CHRIST”, and encourages
them to remain free, and to not get tied up again in the “slavery of the LAW”
(v.1). The Christian life is a life apart from law and license, and it is,
instead, a life lived according to the SPIRIT. To turn again to the law, Paul
says, does five things, and they are all negative to the Christian Believer;
·
It ruins grace (Vs.1-2)
·
It makes a person a debtor (v.3)
·
It causes one to fall away from grace
(Vs.4-6)
·
It blocks the progress of those who
believe (Vs.7-10)
·
It nullifies the purpose of the Cross
(Vs.11-12)
The Galatians, who had been influenced by the “false teachers” who had
infiltrated the church since Paul had left the area, had begun to rely on
“circumcision” and other Jewish rituals and observances to make them “right”
with GOD, instead of relying on their faith in CHRIST. They did not realize
that, by doing these things, they were actually “cutting themselves off from
CHRIST, and thereby, from GOD’s grace (Vs.2-4).
In the Greek, the word “apokaradokia” is the term used for “earnest
expectation”, or “hope for the future”. We, who live by the SPIRIT, eagerly
anticipate “the first signs of the coming of the glory of GOD” (CHRIST’s
return). We look with “high expectations” to receive everything that GOD
promises those who are right with HIM, through our faith in CHRIST. When we
place our faith in CHRIST, it makes no difference to GOD whether we are
circumcised or not. What is important is that we have an undying faith that
expresses itself through “love” (Vs.5-6).
Paul warned that it takes only one person to infect all the others (v.9)
in the church, and he said he was trusting in GOD to rescue them back to the
right path. He knew too, that, GOD would judge those responsible for leading
the church astray by confusing the people and mixing the “holy with the profane”
in the church, in word, thought, and, in deeds (v.10).
The Gentiles in the church at Galatia needed to realize that the Jews
were persecuting Paul because he preached against the doctrine of Judaism,
which supported the belief in the law and good works. He was never a component
of circumcision for Gentiles, which GOD charged only to the Jews, and no one
else.
The “freedom” that Christians are called to, is not the freedom to
satisfy our “sin nature”, but rather, it is the freedom to satisfy the “nature
of GOD” that is within us, by serving one another in love. The whole law of GOD
can be summed up into one command; “Love your neighbor as yourself”. It is high
time that we become aware of how we’re destroying each other by choosing to
live in the prison (world) that is, outside of CHRIST JESUS.
A
Sunday school lesson by,
Larry
D. Alexander
larrydalexanderbiblestudies.blogspot.com
LARRY D. ALEXANDER- Official Website
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