farmboy

Q1. (Galatians 4:10-11) Is celebrating different special worship days essentially wrong? Why did Paul grieve over the Galatians' observances? What significance did these have in terms of their movement towards Judaism? How can we be blessed by observing special days in our era? How can observance of special days become legalistic for Christian believers? In and of itself observances are not wrong. The whole key is where the heart is, why we do this. Paul's grief and the significance is over a project of self-salvation. This type of complicated religion was not made by God. In essence they were being asked to replace the sacrifice of Christ with achievements of man. With this type of theology one mistake could prove fatal. (Mtt 23:) To simplify faith you have to get rid of the middleman, truth, trust and discernment is up to us. We are all brothers and sisters and have equal access to the Father. Some things can be a result of salvation, not a way to attain it. The Gospel is Christ period. The only thing we have to give is our love.

Q5. (Galatians 2:20) In what sense have we been "crucified with Christ"? What does that mean? In what sense do "I no longer live"? Whose life now motivates us? How does this verse relate to Paul's closing comments about the "new creation" (Galatians 6:15)? What does Galatians 2:20 teach about Christ's attitude toward us? It is not possible for us to get cleaned up enough before we approach Christ to "discuss" our salvation. We must come as we are. Christ's love for us, a very sinfull creature, was so great that He willingly gave himself to face the punishment for sin. Our spirit was raised from the dead to be with Christ. Thus being born again we are a new creation. "I" no longer live-"I" being self-centered I can do it on my own. I was born defective, sinfull man. The only way that defect can be fixed is Christ. To trust and obey is the motivational force to free us from the bondage of sin.

Q4. (Galatians 2:15-21) What happens to the importance of Christ's death if circumcision is deemed necessary to salvation? Why was this issue of the sufficiency of the Messiah's death so important in Paul's day? Why was this issue important to Luther and the reformers? Why is it so important in our own day? How does it affect the relative legalism of our congregations? "JESUS IS THE GOSPEL" The Gospel is more than a good story! Mtt 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven The death and resurection of Christ become nothing more than a footnote in History. This is blasphemy and a rejection of Christ. We must therefore save ourselves through works, earn our way into Heaven. The triune God comes into question. This God's word, we can't pick and chose what parts of it we will believe/follow. If I am not willing to sacrifice the self-involved need to do it myself the most valuable prize alive is lost, maybe forever. I need Jesus for everything. In James chapter the term brethren is not used, but what is given are the results of submitting to the yoke slavery-self salvation projects. When you an unholy life (the necessity of circumcism) you undermine the message that is preached. In the U.S. we tend to live a life of greed, lusts, and self-centered egotism. We need to fix our eyes on Christ not how we are performing. Not unlike the Pharisees we want others to see us "doing what we should". This makes it verydifficult for our pastors of today also, they are tasked with giving us what we need not what we want. I don't have to get it right, Christ did it for me. I am worthy because Christ obeyed.

Q3. Why is it so hard to take the gospel to different peoples without wrapping it in our own cultural practices? Can you think of examples of this in Church history? What is the danger? How can we avoid such cultural faux pas in our church's missionary enterprises? We tend to make an all to common mistake of interpreting scripture in light of our experiences instead of interpreting our experiences in light of scripture. It seems like we tend to hide behind the mask of our culture instead of allowing who we really are to show through, simply a believer in Christ. Each has a culture system full of mistakes, yet that is our comfort zone (pride?), and we tend to think others should be the same. It is our duty to present the Gospel and trust the results to God. How each applies the Gospel of Christ to their bondages is between them and God. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone." In my mind there is a real danger of inhibiting Christian maturity. We need to move on from the basic animal response/instinct of punishment-reward, toward doing what is right because it is right (heart). King David was a "scutter", but I think he had a heart for God. What gets us beyond this self-centered type of thinking is a true love/heart for God. True joy is an obediant heart.

Q2. (Galatians 2:14) Why do you think Paul confronted Peter publicly rather than privately? Do you expect Paul had talked with Peter about this previously? How did a public discussion of this benefit the Jewish Christians? How did it benefit the Gentile Christians? What kind of pressure do you think this put on Paul? Paul must have had concerns about a fellow believer behaving in this manner. Distortion of the Gospel by the hyprocrisy would have worried him. There were implications of politics previously, Paul would not have wanted the Gospel to be reduced to political manuevering by keeping this behind closed doors. The Gospel is about Jesus. The Gospel transends politics and cultural differences. The Gospel is the same for all believers. We are not saved by following the law, customs, or rituals. Our walk with the Lord is individual and unique to each one of us. To copy or mimick another walk is to place God in a catagory of trivia.

Don't know how multi posts entered

multiple posts?

Q1. (Galatians 2:11-14) Why do you think Peter first embraced the Gentile believers in Antioch and later withdrew from them to eat only with Jews? What does this tell us about his character? Why should he have known better? What does this tell us about Barnabas? What does it tell us about the political clout of the visitors from Jerusalem? Have you ever acted like a hypocrite to impress others? What should you do when you recover your senses? It would appear that Peter was an insecure self-centered man. He has previously demonstrated a tendancy to go with the crowd so as not to suffer rebuke from the many, a need to be accepted. There was a need to be accfepted by the Jewish visitors. Peter spent time with Christ in person, He had visions relating specifically to this issue. He knew that the blood of Christ cleansed the believer from the bondage to Mosaic law. What God hath cleansed, that call not common. It was previously held that Gentile believers were not required to be circumcised. Is the issue raised that Jewish believers may not be free from the law? Was it ok to eat with the Gentiles, the hypocrisy of Peter and Barnabas left the false impression that it was not their conviction. The Gospel teaches that a person is saved by grace, not the law, Therefore we are not obligated to live under the law. The hypocrisy was in trying to make the Gentiles observe Jewish law. Have I acted like a hypocrite to impress others? Too many times to count. What should I do? Apologize and ask forgiveness for the example I have laid out. I have only done this with my three grown kids. I have failede to do this too many times with the rest of the world.

2 And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles, but privately to them which were of reputation, lest by any means I should run, or had run, in vain. This was to obtain approval of the way Gentiles were brought into the church, they were admitted on the basis of faith without circumcision. Free from bondage to the Mosaic law. The spys mentioned previously wanted to bring Christians into the bondage of rules and regulation of Judaism. The apostles acknowledged the gospel Paul preached as genuine and to be the same gospel they preached. Nothing was found lacking in the gospel Paul preached requiring any addition. 9 And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that was given unto me, they gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of fellowship; that we should go unto the heathen, and they unto the circumcision. At that time the giving of the right hand was a sign of agreement made between peers. Paul was viewed as a partner in the Gospel ministry. Obviously nothing erroneous was found Paul's ministry. The apostles percieved that Paul had been devinely entrusted with the Gospel to the gentiles, Peter the Gospel to the Jews. They had been entrusted with very same Gospel but sent to two different peoples.

Q3. (Galatians 2:1-3) Paul is arguing that the Jerusalem leaders support his position on circumcision, rather than that of the Judaizers. What is the significance of Paul's mention that Titus was not required to be circumcised? Jesus is the guarantor of a new covenant. Jesus is the Gospel, not Mosaic law. Spiritual vs. legal repentance do we need others to see we are getting better? A circumcision of the heart (spiritual repentance) is what is needed. To do otherwise; is to need others to see us doing right; is self-centered and is not what the message of the Gospel is about. Exaggerated importance of secondary items????---only Jesus gets us there 2 Tim 2:15-STUDY TO SHEW THYSELF APPROVED UNTO GOD, A WORKMAN THAT NEEDETH NOT TO BE ASHAMED, RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD OF TRUTH. Titus was significant in that others were beginning to see it also.

What factors in Paul's background made him an ideal apostle to the Gentiles? How did God use his being different from others? I'm going to stick my neck out here. I believe that this is irrelevant, God equips those he calls-he doesn't call the equipped. Thus we can't boast of ourselves. What Paul could say was I was there and I was wrong. With the equiping of Jesus' revelation Paul would understand better those he preached to because he had been there. To ponder: How has your unique background fitted you for ministry? What uniqueness has God given you? What will it take to see that uniqueness as a God-given strength rather than as an embarrassment? This is a tough one, what I see in my mind's eye as unique are my sins/failures to trust in the Lord. The truly effective pastor's I have known understand the human conditon/ what we are going through because they have been there.

What is the source of Paul's gospel? Jesus Christ, our risen Lord is the source. This source was not interferred with by the thoughts of man, on what it should mean or say. The gospel is purly the word of God. How do we know that it is a true revelation? Faith. Paul is not worried what man thinks. Paul tells us what we need not what we want. We have to believe/know that the gospel is God's word alone. If the gospel was infected with the thoughts of man or his so called wisdom it would be faulty. God has never changed, man does constantly. How does it conform to our other foundational sources of Christian teaching? The gospel Paul preached is the word of God(scripture). There is no need for it to conform to any thing. Any source other than scripture should conform to this. All things(experiences) should be evaluated in the light of scripture. What is the danger of taking the teaching of contemporary leaders as our doctrinal basis without checking it with the Scripture? We all sin, none of us is perfect. That means our leaders can be mistaken/wrong. It is our ultimate responsibility to know what we are hearing is true and correct. If we don't study/ read for ourselves we run the danger of a trip to eternal damnation. We can't develop a relationship with God unless we do our own study/ meditation and develop our own personal walk. ***the garden of eden--lucifer**** Our ultimate trust is to go to the triune God only.

Jesus gave himself for our sins, according to the will of God. Jesus is the only way to salvation. The loss of salvation is the result. Look what happened in the garden of Eden with a slight twist of God's word. The affect today is a perversion of the Word and falling away from the truth. Anything added to or subtracted from God's word is nothing more than man trying to interject a wisdom that God has proven foolish. Is this not an attempt by man to be like God, the same thing that caused a certain fall from Heaven? Thankfully God is in control and not me!

4 Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father : Jesus sacrificed Himself for believers that we will be saved. And that salvation is through Him alone. Jesus saves in the same way today. Our Lord is unchanging, He is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. That salvation is trusting and believing on Him, not a thunderbolt and lightning experience. In the past I have made a variety of excuses for falling back-away. 'I was trained to fix, be a self starter, earn what you get etc'. That is nothing more than self-centered egotism. We trust Him, read his word and follow the path laid out for us. The power of prayer and the asking of forgiveness can not be left out.

Howdy, I live in Wyoming, or maybe better said I rent a room from my wife. I work away from home around 250+ days a year. I am looking forward to getting back into a bible study again. Our pastor is looking to me to take an elevated role in the church and I need lots of help.