Our Authority-God's Scripture; Our Justification-Christ Crucified.
May 9, 2019 21:59:57 #
Our Authority is God's Scripture; Our Justification is Christ Crucified.
Two of the great, indispensable truths of the original Christian faith that the Protestant Reformation recovered in Scripture — and from under the mountains of sacramentalism, ritual, and meritorious works within the fallen monolithic assumptions of Rome — were:
1) the supreme authority of Scripture over all human authority (including the pope and all councils), and
2) the truth that sinful human beings stand justified before God,
not on the basis of any righteousness of their own doing, but only on the basis of Christ crucified, risen, and righteous.
Christ Has Set Us Free!
The original 2,000-year-old Christian faith reaffirmed by the 500-year-old Reformation stands with the truth of Paul’s teaching in Galatians. This letter deals with matters on which our eternal destiny hangs.
"If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed."
(Galatians 1:9)
Are we as serious as we should be?
The letter of Galatians, the Reformation, and Christian conviction on justification should echo in us with unparalleled seriousness on at least three levels:
Unparalleled seriousness in joy at the grace and peace that is ours (in verse 3),
Serious thankfulness for the deliverance from evil and destruction that is ours (in verse 4),
The Seriously, soul-satisfying glory of God (in verse 5).
Unparalleled seriousness in our astonishment (like we see in verse 6) that we, our children, or our friends would turn away from this grace to a gospel that is no gospel at all.
Unparalleled seriousness of anger at anyone who, like those in verse 7, distorts the gospel of Jesus Christ to their own ends, and destroys human soul — let them be accursed.
Eternity is at Stake.
Just think of it: accursed (Gal. 1:9). Whose curse? Paul’s? Paul’s curse is nothing compared to God’s curse.
Paul says in 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
But now we have a group, purporting to come from James in Jerusalem (2:12), that is directing the Galatians away from the all-sufficient, curse-removing substitution of Christ. So Paul says, “Cursed!”— damned — be those who lead people away from the curse-removing gospel of Christ.
God's Word in Galatians: Damned be the damners.
This is happening to people within our church and our family. They are being exposed to twisted kinds of pretend "gospels" — which are not God's Biblical gospel — every day. They are being lured away from Jesus Christ as their supreme treasure and away from grace... And they need to hear a very serious word of warning from each one of us, in the words conveyed by the Holy Spirit, through Paul:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:20-21)
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. . . . Did you suffer so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain? (Gal. 3:1, 4)
"You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace." (Galatians 5:4)
Woe to the worship leader who creates an atmosphere in their church where this kind of seriousness feels out of place.
The two recoveries of the original gospel by the Reformation, proclaimed afresh, are sometimes called:
1) the formal principle (the supreme authority of Scripture) and:
2) the material principle (justification by faith alone).
Paul’s letter to the Galatians was so crucial in the recovery of these truths because these two principles are the focus of this book of the Bible's New Testament.
Chapters 1 and 2 deal mainly with the formal principle—Paul’s authority and authorship, received from Jesus Christ.
Chapters 3 and 4 deal mainly with the material principle—justification by faith apart from any works of the law or human effort.
Chapters 5 and 6 deal mainly with the application of that in life.
Galatians 1 from the Bottom Up
In chapter 1, the focus falls heavily on the foundation of the gospel in its divine origin as the words of Jesus Christ, conveyed by the Holy Spirit to the Apostle Paul, the gospel of justification. Paul’s argument, from the deepest foundation he mentions to the final outcome, has each step in the argument building on the one that most immediately supports it.
You can see immediately and intuitively what the logical connections are — what is the cause and what is the effect.
That’s one of the things preaching is for: to make the structure of the argument plain. That helps Paul’s readers to understand why he is so wrought up over those who would preach another gospel.
As Paul puts it, there is no (authentic) gospel other than the original one he preached.
"Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.
So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
(Galatians 3:23-27)
The Gospel Coalition | John Piper
Got Questions?
Two of the great, indispensable truths of the original Christian faith that the Protestant Reformation recovered in Scripture — and from under the mountains of sacramentalism, ritual, and meritorious works within the fallen monolithic assumptions of Rome — were:
1) the supreme authority of Scripture over all human authority (including the pope and all councils), and
2) the truth that sinful human beings stand justified before God,
not on the basis of any righteousness of their own doing, but only on the basis of Christ crucified, risen, and righteous.
Christ Has Set Us Free!
The original 2,000-year-old Christian faith reaffirmed by the 500-year-old Reformation stands with the truth of Paul’s teaching in Galatians. This letter deals with matters on which our eternal destiny hangs.
"If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed."
(Galatians 1:9)
Are we as serious as we should be?
The letter of Galatians, the Reformation, and Christian conviction on justification should echo in us with unparalleled seriousness on at least three levels:
Unparalleled seriousness in joy at the grace and peace that is ours (in verse 3),
Serious thankfulness for the deliverance from evil and destruction that is ours (in verse 4),
The Seriously, soul-satisfying glory of God (in verse 5).
Unparalleled seriousness in our astonishment (like we see in verse 6) that we, our children, or our friends would turn away from this grace to a gospel that is no gospel at all.
Unparalleled seriousness of anger at anyone who, like those in verse 7, distorts the gospel of Jesus Christ to their own ends, and destroys human soul — let them be accursed.
Eternity is at Stake.
Just think of it: accursed (Gal. 1:9). Whose curse? Paul’s? Paul’s curse is nothing compared to God’s curse.
Paul says in 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”
But now we have a group, purporting to come from James in Jerusalem (2:12), that is directing the Galatians away from the all-sufficient, curse-removing substitution of Christ. So Paul says, “Cursed!”— damned — be those who lead people away from the curse-removing gospel of Christ.
God's Word in Galatians: Damned be the damners.
This is happening to people within our church and our family. They are being exposed to twisted kinds of pretend "gospels" — which are not God's Biblical gospel — every day. They are being lured away from Jesus Christ as their supreme treasure and away from grace... And they need to hear a very serious word of warning from each one of us, in the words conveyed by the Holy Spirit, through Paul:
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!" (Galatians 2:20-21)
O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified. . . . Did you suffer so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain? (Gal. 3:1, 4)
"You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace." (Galatians 5:4)
Woe to the worship leader who creates an atmosphere in their church where this kind of seriousness feels out of place.
The two recoveries of the original gospel by the Reformation, proclaimed afresh, are sometimes called:
1) the formal principle (the supreme authority of Scripture) and:
2) the material principle (justification by faith alone).
Paul’s letter to the Galatians was so crucial in the recovery of these truths because these two principles are the focus of this book of the Bible's New Testament.
Chapters 1 and 2 deal mainly with the formal principle—Paul’s authority and authorship, received from Jesus Christ.
Chapters 3 and 4 deal mainly with the material principle—justification by faith apart from any works of the law or human effort.
Chapters 5 and 6 deal mainly with the application of that in life.
Galatians 1 from the Bottom Up
In chapter 1, the focus falls heavily on the foundation of the gospel in its divine origin as the words of Jesus Christ, conveyed by the Holy Spirit to the Apostle Paul, the gospel of justification. Paul’s argument, from the deepest foundation he mentions to the final outcome, has each step in the argument building on the one that most immediately supports it.
You can see immediately and intuitively what the logical connections are — what is the cause and what is the effect.
That’s one of the things preaching is for: to make the structure of the argument plain. That helps Paul’s readers to understand why he is so wrought up over those who would preach another gospel.
As Paul puts it, there is no (authentic) gospel other than the original one he preached.
"Before the coming of this faith, we were held in custody under the law, locked up until the faith that was to come would be revealed.
So the law was our guardian until Christ came that we might be justified by faith.
Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,
for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ."
(Galatians 3:23-27)
The Gospel Coalition | John Piper
Got Questions?
May 10, 2019 09:38:34 #
Zemirah wrote:
Our Authority is God's Scripture; Our Justificatio... (show quote)
Amen and Amen an excellent post Zemirah but I suspect that padremike may come and offer a rebuttal as he always does and is usually wrong in his anger and seeking out vengeance on those of us that he considers to be the enemy.
May 10, 2019 11:12:08 #
Good morning to you, bahmer,
Upholding the truth of the one original Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ, individual belief in which saves our eternal souls, is the most basic thing any Christian can do.
Without the telling of Christ's one-time-death on Calvary, for all who believe, and their subsequent faith in God's plan of Salvation, there would be no Blessed Assurance to comfort us.
Upholding the truth of the one original Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ, individual belief in which saves our eternal souls, is the most basic thing any Christian can do.
Without the telling of Christ's one-time-death on Calvary, for all who believe, and their subsequent faith in God's plan of Salvation, there would be no Blessed Assurance to comfort us.
bahmer wrote:
Amen and Amen an excellent post Zemirah but I suspect that padremike may come and offer a rebuttal as he always does and is usually wrong in his anger and seeking out vengeance on those of us that he considers to be the enemy.
May 10, 2019 14:37:09 #
Zemirah wrote:
Good morning to you, bahmer,
Upholding the truth of the one original Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ, individual belief in which saves our eternal souls, is the most basic thing any Christian can do.
Without the telling of Christ's one-time-death on Calvary, for all who believe, and their subsequent faith in God's plan of Salvation, there would be no Blessed Assurance to comfort us.
Upholding the truth of the one original Biblical Gospel of Jesus Christ, individual belief in which saves our eternal souls, is the most basic thing any Christian can do.
Without the telling of Christ's one-time-death on Calvary, for all who believe, and their subsequent faith in God's plan of Salvation, there would be no Blessed Assurance to comfort us.
Amen and Amen
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