Old Jerry

Trials help us cure our “double-mindedness” by having us depend on our Lord in these circumstances. If we hold on and don’t wander because of our trials then we can look back and see that the Lord was with us through the whole trial. That is what helps us grow in our faith.

I think that we blame God for evil because we don’t know who else to blame for it. He doesn’t tempt sinful people with evil but is the evil in the people that bring on the sins of the world. He lets evil to exist so that He can see how we handle the situations. It brings us closer to God when evil attacks us.

The value that trials have had in my life is to mature me. They have made me trust in the Lord. I haven’t let Satan destroy me with those trials because I percevered. I have allowed God to refine me. I have changed but I hope for the better.

The people that comprise “the Israel of God” today are the Church. The only ones that are excluded from this group are those who do not believe that Jesus died for their sins. The way that Romans is designed to temper Gentile pride is to let them know that it is God that provides the living sap for the branch to live.

The thing that characterizes this “new creation” that Paul talks about is that we have faith. We believed that Jesus saves us and that is the grace that has been given to us. All that the works that we do is just to please Jesus and it has nothing to do with our salvation. The old creation looks like somebody is following the law but we know that we can’t be good enough to buy our salvation. The old creation lacks salvation and the new possesses our salvation. So the saying “You must be born again” relates to the concept of this new creation.

I think that the reason that we become weary living out our faith is because it doesn’t seem like it is making any difference. If we don’t give up then we will reap the harvest. The reason that “doing good” should begin with our spiritual family is because we need to be supporting each other. When we see others doing good then it makes it easier for us to do good.

The meaning to “sow in the flesh” is to do the things that our sinful nature wants to do. It looks like not loving anything that isn’t ourselves. The synonyms that Paul uses for “sow in the Spirit” is “gratifying the sinful nature”, “led by the Spirit”, and “live by the Spirit”. When the congregation sows to the Spirit it looks like everybody loves and cares about all those in the congregation. The results of a congregation of sowing in the flesh are that of back-biting and bitter envy.

I think that Paul means, “caught in a sin” is that the person is sinning and not repenting of that sin. The restoration of such a brother or sister would look like in his or her life would be to repent and return to God. The person that should do the restoring is a person who has the Spirit of God in him. But it should be done gently. If we try to restore that person without humility then that person might become bitter and never be restored.

The meaning of “crucify the flesh with its passions and desires” means we have repented of our sins. We have turned them over to Jesus and we no longer want to do the desires of the flesh. I don’t think that a person can be a Christian without “crucifying the flesh”. We have produced a crop of lukewarm Christians because we are concerned about what the world thinks about us and want to please them and well as God. That is impossible but we continue to try.

The Holy Spirit produces this fruit in our lives by us listening to Him. We know that this fruit is not good just by the feelings that we get when we don’t do these things. The theological term that is used to identify this process is kindness. I think that a person who has been a “Christian” for years can display none or few of these fruits is because he doesn’t listen to the spirit or he isn’t really a Christian. They could be saved because it is by grace that we are saved they are just immature. James says that we can show our faith by our deeds but without deeds we can’t show our faith. I don’t think it’s too harsh I think it is stating the obvious.

I think that patient forbearance is such an important personal character element because there is seems to always be people that will be getting to you. This seems to be especially true when they are non-believers. If you have the forbearance to put up with them then you might be able to bring them to Jesus. It is so important to have peace in the family and in the Christian community because there are plenty of people out there that is going to be attaching you. It is much easier to stick together when you have peace in the family and the Christian community.

I think that joy and peace can’t exist apart from love is because you love you will have peace and joy. When you have love for God and love for our neighbors things just seem to go great. You can get along and not have to be confronting the neighbor or God.

I think the reason some Christians resist accepting Paul’s warning in 5:21 and 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 is because they want to follow their evil ways. They think that Jesus’ sacrifice is enough to cover their evil ways which it is if they would quit sinning. The statement that these Christians desire to substitute for Paul’s warning if they could reword the Scripture is that Jesus died for your sins so you can keep on sinning.

If I were to divide the works of the flesh into several groups I would probably use the same grouping that the text has.

I think that these verses teach us that if we have the Holy Spirit then we will not be trying to please the sinful nature. I’m not saying that we still won’t want to do these things it just makes it easier to avoid them. The way that yielding to the Spirit suppresses the power of the old nature is that if we are going to try to please God then we will make the decision to follow what the Spirit is telling us. I think that Spirit-lead living is possible but we sometimes let down our guard and give in to our sinful nature.

Yes, I have seen Christians act as if they were lawless. Spirit-led Christians fulfill the spirit of the law by loving our neighbor as we do ourselves. But the backbiting and rudeness in the congregation says that the spiritual climate of that congregation if very toxic and they are not living up to the call of God. There can’t be any love in a situation a like that. This will also drive people out of the church.

“The offence of the cross” that offended the Jews is that they crucified the One that they had been look for all these years. I’m not too sure has the cross offends people in our day. But I do know that it does. It offends them so much that it will make them start cussing at you. Maybe it is because of the joy that we have and can’t have any of it. I have noticed that Christians have softened their proclamation of the cross because it is so offensive to those that don’t believe. I hope that it will help us to communicate more clearly to our age because they won’t shut their ears as fast. But I also think that it truly compromises the true message.

The way that the Spirit has become the new “mark of identity” for the believer is that when he accepts Jesus Christ into his heart he will be a different person. You can identify this person by the deeds that he does. The evidence of the Spirit’s presence in a believer’s life is Faith expressing itself in love.

When Paul says “fall from grace” he means that they are no longer free in Jesus Christ. They are under the burden of the law. The thing that has occurred that caused this fall is that the gentiles wanted to become circumcised which they thought would help bring them their salvation. Present-day Christian legalism can cause us to “fall from grace” because we are thing that it takes more than Jesus Christ to save us. It also takes whatever legal thing that we believe in will also save us.

The way that Paul’s grief over his spiritual children is like that of a parent seeing children go astray is that he can see what is happening but is not there to help them resolve their situation. The enemy is there pounding on them and Paul is not around to defend them. When Christ formed in a person that person is completely turned around. He has repented of his sins and is following Christ to the best of his ability. But the key word is repenting because that is the beginning of this spiritual formation.

Celebrating different special worship days is not essentially wrong. It is what on your heart that counts. If you are doing it to worship Jesus and not doing it because you think that you can be saved because you are doing it then it is wrong. The reason that Paul grieved over the Galatians’ observance of those days is because they were doing it because they thought they had to in order to get into the Kingdom. They were moving more and more to legalism or towards Judaism. We can be blessed by observing special days in our era by drawing closer to Jesus. If the observance brings us closer to God then that is a good thing. But if we think that we have to observe those days for our salvation, then that is bringing us to a legalistic society.

The Spirit’s filling demonstrates that we are full sons because we are able to call him Dad instead of father. The special sense in which the Aramaic word “abba” is used to speak to one’s father is that we are his sons and that we are comfortable with Him as our loving father. Being heirs of God means that we will be able to go to the His kingdom and be with him for eternity. We are sons in the same sense that Jesus was God’s Son except He was the first Son so he inherits more than we do but that is OK I just want to be with the Father.

The sense that both Gentiles and Jews are enslaved is that we have all sinned and are condemned to death. “Redeem” means that Jesus has taken our sins and we are no longer condemned to death but we are to be with him in the Kingdom to come for eternity. The implications of adoption regarding a person’s legal and spiritual rights are that we will be heirs with Jesus and we will share the things that He gets.

I think that it took so long to send the Messiah because God was letting everything develop is a way that only He could. Only God knew that the time was perfect to send his Son. The first century would was made fertile ground for the revelation of the messiah and the spread of the gospel. It is just like God is waiting for the right time to send Jesus back to claim the world. The timing is going to be perfect.

I do think that Jewish Christians regarded Gentile Christians as second-class citizens. Look at the way that they wanted them to be circumcised. They thought that if they weren’t circumcised they weren’t as good ad them. The basis of our unity in Christ is that we are all the same as it goes in our spirit. There is no difference. The way that this unity pulls down barriers is that we can think of all as equal in God’s sight. I don’t think that there are any citizens in our congregations that are considered second-class citizens.