We had some technical difficulties with Zoom application, but were able to get on a bridge call.
We prayed for covid 19 victims
Opened with a verse from 1 Chronicles 12:32, "Of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do."
We prayed that, we would be a people who both understand the times and know what to do.
We did an overview of the flow of the book of Galatians
One of the main points was Paul dealing with people falling away from the purity of the gospel by adding to it or trying to accomplish the work of the gospel in the flesh.
In chapter 1, he points out how the gospel was taught to him. It was not by man but by God Himself.
He then goes on to talk about a 3 year period of time and a 14 year period of time that only God directed his steps.
This is what appears to have made Paul the greatest theologian of biblical record next to Jesus Himself. When comparing Peter to Paul, Peter was not as skilled in theological understanding as Paul was and for Peter and us today, when reading Paul, we must slow down to understand where he is coming from.
But Paul is always fundamentally right and taking the time to understand correctly his teachings paves the way to us getting a firm grasp on the gospel. This is important because it determines the type of resurrected life you will experience. When we depart from the gospel the result is the absence of resurrected life.
In the book of Galatians we see a masterful shepherd and teacher laboring to preserve the gospel and to guide his sheep into a prosperous resurrected life.
In Galatians 2, We see Paul confront Peter over a group that was trying to add to the gospel circumcision. Here he points out how we are justified by faith alone.
We pointed out how in Galatians 1:6, 3:1, and 4:8-9, Paul confronts the Galatian believers for falling away from the purity and completeness of the Gospel.
In Gal. 3:1-6, we see 6 questions. If you look close at them, you can notice they work together in pairs. The odd number question 1, 3, 5 are what I call the "come on man" questions. They are of a nature that jars us to recognize our errors and too vow to focus on the right thing. The even number questions are what I call the "think about it" questions. They are of a nature that points us to take the time to think a bit deeper about what is really going on and what is really the truth.
So in these 6 verses, Paul speaks 3 couplets of questions to jar his audience to both wake up, think about what they are doing and pursue the purity of the Gospel zealously.
This frame work is important to notice because it is the overall spirit of how he communicated throughout the whole letter. He has sections where he talks plainly to them, but other sections where he calls them to deeper theological understanding so that, they will experience the resurrected life and they would be a people that will preserve the gospel for the next generation.
As we work through chapter 3&4, Paul unpacks some theological concepts.
1-By Faith or By Works
2-The Law and The Promise
3-Hagar and Sarah
It takes some time to process each one of these concept, but remember this is a writing from possibly the greatest theologian on the greatest topic. He weaves these 3 theological concepts together to give his audience a firm understanding of what God promised to Abraham and how it was fulfilled in Christ.
We briefly discussed, what I look forward to more carefully looking at in the future is
1-The difference between the covenant with Abraham and the covenant at Mt. Sinai.
2-The difference between the child heir and a heir that has come to the age set by his father.
3-The difference between circumcision of the flesh and circumcision of the spirit.
Our goal for next week will be to pick back up in Galatians 3:10 and journey through chapter 3 line by line making sure we all have a good understanding of text and are on the same page with what Paul is teaching his audience.
Hope you all have a great week.
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