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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Henry: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 27.
immersed in Galatians,
the super apostles in Corinth weren't
the only ones trying to discredit Paul
in the Roman province of Galatia, a
region in Asia minor, modern day Turkey.
Some troublemakers were bringing
a different version of the good
news about Jesus into the church.
Paul had founded.
They were teaching that even those
who had faith in Jesus needed to
obey certain parts of the Jewish
law, particularly circumcision.
These false teachers evidently claimed
that Paul had learned this from the other
apostles and was teaching this elsewhere.
Even though Paul was about to
leave for Jerusalem, he recognized
the urgency of writing a letter
to the Galatians right away.
The meaning of the gospel
itself was at stake.
In his letter, Paul sets the record
straight regarding what he taught,
where he learned it, and what
following Jesus really involves.
We can tell immediately that Paul is
upset by what's happening in Galatia.
A standard feature of Paul's letter
is an opening word of Thanksgiving
for the recipients, but Paul skips it
and goes straight to his reprimand.
I am shocked that you are
turning away so soon from God.
You are following a different way
that pretends to be the good news.
But is not the good news at all.
Paul first explains that he
received the gospel message directly
from Jesus, not the apostles.
He goes on to say that the apostles in
Jerusalem believe the same thing he does.
Gentiles who follow Jesus don't
need to keep the Jewish law.
Next, Paul describes a
confrontation he had with the
apostle Peter over this issue.
Peter had stopped eating meals with
Gentiles because of pressure from
some Jewish believers who thought all
Gentile believers should be circumcised.
This struck at the heart of God's
revelation that there is a new single
family based on faith in Jesus.
Paul had challenged Peter publicly
because he was not following
the truth of the gospel message.
Paul then devotes the bulk of this letter
to explaining why it isn't necessary
for Gentiles to keep the Jewish law.
He reminds the Galatians that
God gave them the Holy Spirit
and worked miracles among them.
As soon as they believed the
message about the Messiah.
They already had signs of God's new
world existing in their community,
so why should they now think they
needed to follow Jewish observances?
Paul provides an in-depth discussion of
Israel's history, including the crucial
sequence of Abraham, the giving of the law
under Moses, and then the coming of Jesus.
Although Abraham lived before the Jewish
law was established, he received God's
promises of land and a worldwide family,
and he believed those promises by faith.
Abraham believed God, and God counted
him as righteous because of his faith.
Paul argues that the later coming
of the Jewish law can't undo
the covenant made with Abraham.
The law was given to God's people
only for a period of time as a
guardian until the Messiah came.
Now that Jesus has come, everyone
who has faith in him becomes
a true child of Abraham and an
heir of the promises made to him.
The dividing line between Jew and
Gentile are dissolved, and now one
family of Abraham exists through
faith in Jesus because of their
equal status in God's family.
Starting to follow the requirements
of the Jewish law would be a giant
step backward for the Galatians.
God's story has already moved on.
All people are now welcome to receive
Jesus and join the family without having
to become Jewish or follow Jewish law.
Now, just one question remains, if the
Gentiles don't follow the Jewish law, what
will keep them from living immoral lives?
Paul emphasizes that God's holy
Spirit living in them empowers them to
follow the good ways of God's kingdom.
As Paul says, in closing,
it doesn't matter whether we
have been circumcised or not.
What counts as whether we have been
transformed into a new creation?
May God's peace and mercy be upon
all who live by this principle.
They are the new people of God.
The letter to the Galatians,
this letter is from Paul and Apostle.
I was not appointed by any group of
people or any human authority, but by
Jesus Christ himself and by God the
father who raised Jesus from the dead.
All the brothers and sisters here
join me in sending this letter
to the churches of Galatia.
May God the Father and our Lord Jesus
Christ give you grace and peace.
Jesus gave his life for our sins just
as God our father planned in order to
rescue us from this evil world in which
we live all glory to God forever and ever.
Amen.
I am shocked that you are turning away so
soon from God who called you to himself
through the loving mercy of Christ.
You are following a different way
that pretends to be the good news,
but is not the good news at all.
You are being fooled by those
who deliberately twist the
truth concerning Christ.
Let God's curse fall on anyone, including
us, or even an angel from Heaven who
preaches a different kind of good
news than the one we preached to you.
I say again, what we have said before.
If anyone preaches any other good
news than the one you welcomed,
let that person be cursed.
Obviously, I'm not trying to win
the approval of people, but of God,
if pleasing people were my goal,
I would not be Christ's servant.
Dear brothers and sisters, I
want you to understand that the
gospel message I preach is not
based on mere human reasoning.
I received my message from no
human source and no one taught me.
Instead, I received it by direct
revelation from Jesus Christ.
You know what I was like when I
followed the Jewish religion, how I
violently persecuted God's church.
I did my best to destroy it.
I was far ahead of my fellow Jews and my
zeal for the traditions of my ancestors.
But even before I was born, God chose
me and called me by his marvelous grace.
Then it pleased him to reveal his son
to me so that I would proclaim the
good news about Jesus to the Gentiles.
When this happened, I did not rush out
to consult with any human being, nor
did I go up to Jerusalem to consult with
those who were apostles before I was.
Instead, I went away into Arabia and
later I returned to the city of Damascus.
Then three years later, I went to
Jerusalem to get to know Peter,
and I stayed with him for 15 days.
The only other apostle I met at that
time was James, the Lord's brother.
I declare before God that what I
am writing to you is not a lie.
After that visit, I went north into
the provinces of Syria and Saia, and
still the churches in Christ that are
in Judea didn't know me personally.
All they knew was that people were saying
the one who used to persecute us as now
preaching the very faith he tried to
destroy and they praise God because of me.
Then 14 years later, I went
back to Jerusalem again.
This time with Barnabas
and Titus came along too.
I went there because God
revealed to me that I should go.
While I was there, I met privately with
those considered to be leaders of the
church and shared with them the message
I had been preaching to the Gentiles.
I wanted to make sure that we were in
agreement for fear that all my efforts
had been wasted and I was running the
race for nothing, and they supported me
and did not even demand that my companion
be circumcised, though he was a gentile.
Even that question came up only because
of some so-called believers there.
False ones really who
were secretly brought in.
They sneaked in to spy on us and take
away the freedom we have in Christ Jesus.
They wanted to enslave us and
force us to follow their Jewish
regulations, but we refuse to give
in to them for a single moment.
We wanted to preserve the truth of
the gospel message for you, and the
leaders of the church had nothing
to add to what I was preaching.
By the way, their reputation as
great leaders made no difference
to me, for God has no favorites.
Instead, they saw that God had
given me the responsibility of
preaching the gospel to the Gentiles,
just as he had given Peter the
responsibility of preaching to the Jews.
For the same God who worked through Peter
as the Apostle to the Jews, also worked
through me as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
In fact, James, Peter and John,
who were known as pillars of the
Church, recognized the gift God
had given me, and they accepted
Barnabas and me as their coworkers.
They encouraged us to keep
preaching to the Gentiles while they
continued their work with the Jews.
Their only suggestion was that we
keep on helping the poor, which
I have always been eager to do.
But when Peter came to Antioch,
I had to oppose him to his face
for what he did was very wrong.
When he first arrived, he ate
with the gentile believers
who were not circumcised.
But afterward, when some friends
of James came, Peter wouldn't
eat with the Gentiles anymore.
He was afraid of criticism from
these people who insisted on
the necessity of circumcision.
As a result, other Jewish
believers followed Peter's
hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was
led astray by their hypocrisy.
When I saw that they were not following
the truth of the gospel message, I said to
Peter, in front of all the others, since
you are Jew by birth, have discarded the
Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile,
why are you now trying to make these
gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?
You and I are Jews by birth,
not sinners like the Gentiles.
Yet we know that a person is made right
with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not
by obeying the law, and we have believed
in Christ Jesus so that we might be
made right with God because of our
faith in Christ, not because we have
obeyed the law for no one will ever be
made right with God by obeying the law.
But suppose we seek to be made
right with God through faith in
Christ, and then we are found guilty
because we have abandoned the law.
Would that mean Christ
has led us into sin?
Absolutely not.
Rather, I am a sinner.
If I rebuild the old system of
law, I already tore down for
when I tried to keep the law.
It condemned me.
So I died to the law.
I stopped trying to meet all its
requirements so that I might live for God.
My old self has been
crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me.
So I live in this earthly body
by trusting in the son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not treat the grace
of God as meaningless.
For if keeping the law could make
us right with God, then there
was no need for Christ to die.
This concludes today's
immer reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.