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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.
We are continuing our study in Galatians, and in the last episode we talked about two questions that Paul asked the church in Galatia. And the first question was, How did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it by faith, or was it because of your works? So, we saw that there are these kind of tendencies among Christians to say that, okay, we're saved by grace, but now, after being saved by grace, now you have to continue in the law. You have to keep the law.
Speaker 1:You have to keep the 10 commandments. Grace enables you to walk in the law. That sort of a teaching is prevalent in our age today. Now let's go to the second question that he asks here. I'm gonna read from Galatians chapter three verse four and five that he who provide you with the spirit works miracles among you.
Speaker 1:Do it by the works of the law or by hearing of faith. Now this is very clear that Paul is against keeping the law after salvation, but a lot of people refute that saying that he never talks against the law after salvation, that keeping the law after salvation that he is for it. But here, you can see the proof. It says that, Does He who provide you with the Spirit and works miracles among you do it by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith? Here you see that.
Speaker 1:He's saying he that works miracles among you. So clearly, this is not before your salvation. This is after your salvation. This is your daily Christian walk. So he's saying that you don't have to put a pinch of law.
Speaker 1:Now he's saying he's asking that he the way miracles happen among you. So apparently, in the church in Galatia, there were miracles happening. And he was asking, the miracles that happened among you, is it because of the faith that you have or is it because you did something? Clearly, they would have noticed that it was by faith and not by works, not by keeping the law. So he's saying that, okay, now that you've started off in faith, we have started off in grace.
Speaker 1:Now continuing that, why do you have to focus on getting back into the law, a performance based religion? And I wanna show that. The church in Galatia was very clear about it. They knew that miracles happened in their life because of faith. So that's why Paul was able to ask that question.
Speaker 1:Nowadays, believe that a lot of the times we tend to think that it's because of our performance, the way we have performed before God, that we are able to work miracles. Now let's look at Acts chapter three and it says, Peter and John were going to the temple to pray. They were not prayed up and then they saw this lame person. This person asks for healing, and Peter and John say that silver and gold have I none, and what I have I give in the name of Jesus. And they said rise up and walk.
Speaker 1:This guy walked. We know the story. Acts chapter three, if you don't. And then what's interesting is right after that, Peter says that, do you think it is because of our piety? Do do you think it's because we are super spiritual or we have done these kind of things that we're able to work miracles?
Speaker 1:Or do you think that our performance had anything to do with this, but rather this is by faith and faith in the name of Jesus? When I say that we believers can work miracles, we believers can walk exactly like Jesus walked on earth. A lot of people say that no. And I remember one brother actually telling me that he talked about a man of God called David Wilkerson. A lot of people know him.
Speaker 1:So he said that David Wilkerson was a person that he knew would block in such power and authority. And he was saying that was because the time he spent with God, the kind of relationship which he had with God. But see, this is the kind of thing that I'm saying that we think it is about the time that we spend with God. We think that it's amount the amount of time that we spend in prayer and fasting. All these things are fine, but the point that we need to take is that it's not by our performance that we work miracles.
Speaker 1:It is by faith in the name of Jesus. And that's how we walk in our Christian life. And that's why Paul is asking, does he who provide you with the spirit and work miracles among you? Do it by the works of the law or by hearing with faith. So his point is, like I talked in the last episode, you receive the Holy Spirit by grace through faith, and you do miracles by grace.
Speaker 1:Why are you trying to continue in the law? If you start off in grace, continue in grace, you have to live by the spirit. That's all. You don't have to be perfected by following the law or getting into a performance based Christianity or religion. It's a trap that we can fall into, that we need to do this.
Speaker 1:We need to go there, get hands laid on, and things like that in order to be perfected in Christ Jesus. But understand this. You're already perfecting Christ Jesus. You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. You're holy, blameless, sanctified, royal priesthood.
Speaker 1:You're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. And the second, he has given you everything that pertains to life and godliness. He didn't say, okay, till you do certain things, but it's like you have been given everything pertaining to life and godliness. So reign in life with him. Reign in life.
Speaker 1:Reign in your life as a new creation in Christ Jesus. May god bless you all.