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This podcast is purposefully crafted to serve as a reminder for born-again believers about our identity in Christ. It seeks to deepen our comprehension of the profound power and potential inherent in the Gospel that has been entrusted to us. In this show, we will delve into various contemporary challenges confronting believers and provide biblical insights to diagnose these issues.
Hello, everyone. Welcome back to our podcast. Have you noticed that in many churches, when we are born again, they say, salvation is by grace through faith. You need to come just as you are, and you will be saved. And right after you're saved, the tone changes, and now it's like you have to keep the law.
Speaker 1:I've heard preachers teaching that that grace enables you to keep the law, that grace helps you to come to a place where now you're a new creation in Christ Jesus, and now you can keep the law. That's not true because the Bible teaches otherwise. This was supposedly one of the teachings that Galatians had too because they felt that now having been in Christ, they had to be perfected by the law, that they needed to have Jesus plus something. They had to have the performance, the Old Testament laws, the moral laws, tradition, ceremony laws in order to be perfect. That's for perfection.
Speaker 1:Now we are going to look into Galatians chapter three two and three, and Paul asks the first question of the two questions that he asked here, and I will look into the second question in the next episode, but it says here, let's read from Galatians chapter three verse two and three. Did you receive the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing with faith? Are you so foolish having begun by the spirit? Are you now being perfected by the flesh? Alright.
Speaker 1:You're saying that you need to start by grace through faith, but then you need to continue with the law. And so he asked the question, how did you receive the holy spirit? The answer to that question is that we receive the Holy Spirit by faith because in Ephesians chapter one verse 13, it says, in him, you also, when you heard the word of the truth, the gospel of your salvation, you believed in him and were sealed with the promise of the holy spirit. We were sealed with the promise of the holy spirit when we believed. So it was not because of the spiritual gymnastics that you did.
Speaker 1:It was not because of the performance. It was not because of the old testament laws, but rather you received the Holy Spirit when you believed. That's what Paul is saying. So he's asking in a sense, you started off by grace. What makes you think that you can continue without grace by getting into legalism and performance based Christianity.
Speaker 1:So that's what his first question was. They say that, are you praying every day? Are you fasting twice a week? And sometimes people don't say outright that you need to fast and pray all the time, but they say that, look at this person. He fast and prays every month.
Speaker 1:He's such a spiritual person. So in a sense, you are implying that someone who is fasting and praying all the time is someone who has perfected in Christ. And Paul was saying in Galatians chapter two verse 21, if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. Just imagine this. If righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing.
Speaker 1:It was because we couldn't get the righteousness of God through anything but faith. That's the reason why we received the righteousness by faith. And once we received it, we live in that righteousness. And we are very quick to preach grace to the unsaved. But when it comes to saved people, we all of a sudden say, you have to keep the law.
Speaker 1:Before salvation is come as you are and right after salvation is, if you don't do this, then you are in big trouble. If righteousness could be attained through the law, Christ died for nothing. Christ died for our righteousness, and he has to die because there was no other way that we would be righteous. Should we live righteously? Yes.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. But you might ask, then why are you so against living in the 10 commandments and all that? I've said this before in one of my other podcasts, but you should understand. What I'm saying is not to live indulging in sin, but what I'm trying to say is that you are a new creation. You have changed.
Speaker 1:You are not the old person that you think you are. You are not that person anymore. You don't like sin. The law is for people who like sin. They were the ones who were trying to stop them from doing things that they love doing, but you are a new creation.
Speaker 1:New has come. The law of love has been written in our hearts. And John says, if you abide in love, you abide in God. That's what he says in first John. And that's what we have to do rather than having a rule book on what should I do today.
Speaker 1:Should I be nice to my child today? Should I not murder today? Rather than focusing on all those kind of stuff, live from love. That's the way to live. That the purpose of law was never for righteousness in the first place.
Speaker 1:It was never intended for righteousness. In Galatians chapter four, first one, we read that it was a guide to the actual substance, which was Christ. So grace is not just for sinners. It's for saints too. If you started your Christian walk by faith and you continue your Christian walk by faith.
Speaker 1:So that's what Paul says in Colossians chapter two verse six, as you have therefore received Christ Jesus, so walk in him. That's what we have to do. It's not just about living in legalism, and we need to stop trying to finish in the flesh what we started in the spirit. And Galatians chapter five verse one says that it is for freedom that Christ has set you free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourself be burdened again by the yoke of slavery.
Speaker 1:You see, you need to understand that the righteousness of God, and it's by grace through faith that we walk in the righteousness of God. That's what the finished work of Christ is about. You walk in that perfection. That's what Paul was trying to say, that you have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.
Speaker 1:The life that I live by faith, the son of man who lived, who died for me. So we need to focus on grace, living in grace, living according to the spirit even after our salvation.