Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “The Word Saves” and it is based on John 12:44-50.  

As we have already seen, John’s introduction presents Jesus as God incarnate or in the flesh.  In today’s study text, John presents one of Jesus’s own testimonies concerning Himself.  In this particular testimony Jesus makes the following claims. 

Jesus states that He is a representative of someone who has sent Him.  Therefore, anyone who believes what He is saying is also believing the One who sent Him.  Jesus then testifies that He and the One who sent Him are One. 

He declares that there is no real difference between Him and the One who sent Him.  It is sort of like two pair of shoes that may have some cosmetic differences to the point that someone may believe they have a different shoe but it is the same shoe.  In other words, the key components and design of the shoe are the same.  They may just look different on the outside.  Jesus says He and the One who sent Him are the same shoe. 

Jesus testifies that His reason for coming into the world was and is to bring light.  The light Jesus is referring to is the light of understanding, of truth and of knowledge.  The darkness He refers to is the lack of these things. 

Jesus testifies that the people who hear but do not believe His words will be judged, but that is not why He came.  Instead of coming into the world the judge the world, he came to save it.  Jesus testifies that His word will serve as its own judge upon those who rejected Him and His word in the last day or day of judgement. 

He repeats that He has not come or spoken on His own authority, but He has been told what to say by the Father who sent Him.  And one of the things the Father has told Him to say is that everlasting life is His command for those who believe Him. 

There are other similar passages in the gospel of John where Jesus testifies or discloses His identity and mission. 

In summary, to see and believe Jesus is to see and believe the One who sent Him.  He came into the world to give light to those who are in darkness.  His mission was and is not to judge, but to save.  His words will judge those who hear them.  He only speaks what and says what the Father who sent Him has given Him to say. 

Among the things He was given to say is a commandment of everlasting life to those who believe.  Today’s study is a testimony of who and what Jesus said concerning Himself.  It is one of several in the gospel of John. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “The Word Heals” and it is based on John 4:46-54. 

Today’s study describes what John calls Jesus’s second miracle.  His first miracle was turning some water into wine at a wedding feast in a place called Cana. 

On his way back to Cana, Jesus was met by a governmental official also referred to as a nobleman.  Just how important this person was or what he did we are not told.  Who or whatever he was must not be confused with a similar account of a centurion who made a similar request as this nobleman. 

The nobleman used a word described as begging or pleading for Jesus to come to his house and heal his son who was near death.  In contrast to the centurion, the centurion did not want Jesus to come to his house because he did not feel worthy that he should. 

This official was very concerned because his son was nearly dead and Jesus was his last hope and option.  Jesus used this occasion to point out the need of people to see over the call for us to believe. 

While the works that Jesus did helped to establish His claim as to who He was, He knew that everyone would not be able to verify His claim with their eyes and would have to believe the testimony of others. 

After insisting that Jesus come to his son bedside before he dies, Jesus told the official to return home because his son lives or is healed.  The nobleman stopped insisting that Jesus come to his house and decided to believed Jesus and took Him at his word. 

There also comes a time in the life of every believer where we must stop insisting on evidence or proof and just believe what was said and done concerning Jesus. 

Once he decided to believe Jesus, he headed home and was met by some of his household telling him that his son has recover.  When he inquired as to when his son began to recover, his servants told him and it was the same time Jesus told him that his son will be okay. 

In our life today there are going to be many things that happen we can’t explain, many tragedies and incidents we wish would not happen and many events and miracles that have no explanation in any science we are aware of. 

This is where we are called to believe without seeing, without fully understanding, without knowing the why of God’s way of doing what He has done, is doing and shall do.  At some point, believers must stop insisting on seeing and just start believing. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “The Creating Word Becomes Flesh” and it is based on John 1:1-14. 

The introduction to the gospel according to John is one of the most important and theologically relevant passages of scripture in the entire bible.  In these first 14 verses, John gives a description of who Jesus really is. 

John’s description of Jesus essentially describes Jesus as God manifest in human flesh.  He begins his description by stating the power and person of the Word.  He says the Word was in the beginning. 

There is nothing before the Word, just as there is nothing before God.  Both God and the Word were in the beginning and both are God.  God and the Word are the same. 

Furthermore, all things were made by the Word who is also God or the Creator.  In the Word or Creator is or was life or the power to be. 

Along with the life given to humanity came light which is knowledge of truth or the power or ability to know or experience truth.  True knowledge or light as John calls it shines or exerts itself against darkness which is evil caused by ignorance or perversion of knowledge.  It is this light of life found in every person which gives human beings a clue and ability to make sense of their world and existence.  

John the Baptist was a man sent by God to be a forerunner of the Light of Life.  He was not the Light but was born to tell people about the future arrival of this Light and how He might be identified.  His testimony was that He is the Light of truth who gives knowledge and the ability to know to all people.  The Light of Life was already in the world and through the Light of Life all things were made. 

However, the world did not recognize or acknowledge this Creating Light.  And when the Creating Light came to reveal Himself to the things He Himself had created, His created things reacted negatively toward Him. 

But to those who embraced and welcomed Him and believed Him, the Light of Life, True and Knowledge, they are and were given the privilege or honor to become the children of God.  These believers in the Light were ordained or destined from the beginning to become the children of God.  

Finally, John concludes that the Word, who he just explained and declared is God and the Light of Life, took on human form and dwelt among the people He created.  And both He and others saw Him with their own eyes and the grace and truth that was in Him as the only begotten or born of God sent into the world. 

This introduction to the gospel of John is foundational in establishing who Jesus really is.  It is through this text that help Christians make the claim that Jesus is one with God Himself.  The entire gospel of John is presented from this viewpoint of who Jesus is, what He was doing and why He was doing it. 

There is no real or true understanding of Jesus in any other writings in the New Testament without this introduction to the gospel of John.  This introduction settles the questions of who Jesus actually is.  Other references in scripture give insight to His identity, but there are none greater and unambiguous than these 14 verses. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “God Offers Deliverance” and it is based on Isaiah 51:1-8. 

Salvation is a word which means deliverance.  In the case of this biblical text, the deliverance is from death.  The gospel of Jesus Christ is a message about this same salvation or deliverance.  This salvation is something a growing number of people has less confidence in.  Their belief in the God of this text and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ has faded. 

The reasons for this decline are complex.  It partly stems from the promotion and consideration of an alternative view and narrative of the origin of humanity.  There is a strong push to displace God with a completely undirected, unaided, inanimate explanation of how life began on earth better known as the theory of evolution. 

This theory is unproven and based on conjecture.  Yet it is and has been pushed upon people as settled and unquestionable fact when it is anything but this.  Yet the result is that millions of people have yielded to the secular pressure to believe this unproven theory and have given up on deliverance and resigned themselves to death.  This is what we must keep in mind as we view this text. 

The text begins with God basically saying to all those who haven’t bought into some form of defeatist attitude concerning salvation to look to Him for deliverance.  In a world which has its origin in the one described by the evolutionist there would be no such thing as absolute righteousness or morality.  For it would only exist in the mind of those who made it up or defined it.  But in a world in which God created, God would be able to define righteousness and morality for those He created. 

In the text, He issues a call to all the people who are seeking righteousness and to all those who seek the true origin of their existence.  He declares He is the rock from which they were hewn and the quarry from which they were dug. 

He goes on to recall how and through whom He has called them in Abraham and Sarah and the covenant He made with him.  He reassures all those who are looking to Him that He has not abandoned them and that they shall be restored.  He announces that His offer of salvation is extended to all nations. 

Furthermore, God declares that the heaven and earth shall all pass away along with all the people therein.  However, an exception is made for those who believe in Him and who are waiting on Him.  For them, His eternal righteousness and salvation shall deliver them from the fate of the other created things. 

He tells all the people who have placed their trust in Him not to fear or be dismayed by those who insult or scorn them for their faith.  Their fate is sealed if they do not repent and believe. 

This study text for us today is about resisting the calls and efforts of others to offer unproven, and quite frankly, ridiculous explanations for our existence in this world.  To suggest that all living, complex life in all of its varieties somehow sprang involuntarily from a single random source and combination of events of inorganic matter is unproven improbable speculation and conjecture.   

Yet acceptance of this is what is partly responsible for the people of the world losing and other not having faith in the God who created us.  But for all those who believe there is true righteousness and a God who created them and who seek such, the text said there is salvation or deliverance for them. 

It just so happens that I delivered a message from this same text entitled “Making Sense Of The World”.  You can listen to it by clicking on the message title. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “God’s Restored People Shall Prosper” and it is based on Isaiah 49:18-23.  

The prophet Isaiah in this study passage, personifies the place where God’s people once were and they are now returning.  Beginning with verse 18, Isaiah is asking someone to look up and see.  Who is this with eyes being asked to see?  It is someone with children and he wants this someone to observe its’ children gathering and coming to it. 

There are some references to the name of this place as Zion or Israel or Judah or Jerusalem.  Whatever the name, it is the place where God’s people have come together.  These people are special like ornaments those worn on a wedding day or special garment. 

In the next verse there is a vail reference to Israel, the physical place God’s chosen people and nation inhabited.  After their downfall and conquest, the land fell into desolation and despair and ruin.  But the returning number of God’s children will overrun the previous physical space the nation provided.  Not only that, but those who once threaten Israel, will no longer be a problem. 

In verse 20, the prophet makes a reference to the children who were born while the land or place of God’s people was empty or as the prophet described bereaved.  These children too recognize that the former borders of Israel or the place of God’s people are too small to house all of them.  They say to the place of God’s people make room for us. 

Then God’s place will answer with a question.  It wants to know where did all these children come from.  The place acknowledges that it didn’t make them for it was barren and desolate of children.  Then God answers by saying He is responsible for the flood of children coming into the land.  He will lift up a banner and signal to all nations to come.  They will come bringing their children with them to the place of His people.  

In the final verse 23 of the study, there will be people of honor who will serve to nurture and take care of the children who shall come to God’s place.  These will be those who recognized the authority of God and serve the people of God. 

When this comes to pass, God said you, meaning everyone will know and especially His people, that those who wait on Him will not be ashamed or disappointed. 

In summary, this is another prophesy of God’s universal salvation to all people beyond Israel.  The place of God’s people, the land of Canaan that God promised Abraham to give to his descendants has become larger than the physical space.  Nor is God’s place no longer limited to its borders. 

But as Jesus said in John 4 that a time is coming when the worship of the Father will not necessitate a physical place.  But the true worshippers will worship God in spirit and in truth.  This is what this study is referring to. 

Those who will hear and heed the call of God to become His children from all over the world and from every nation and people.  They don’t have to be concerned with the threats of others nations because no nation can conquer the soul and spirit and faith of God’s people. 

These are tough times right now because of the rise of idolatry not only here in the United States but everywhere.  People are being misled into substituting and placing love and devotion to nation, race, property and other things for the love of the truth and our neighbors as ourselves. 

Somehow, we who still love the Lord over people, country, race and everything else must rely on the Lord to help us lift up His banner and signal to the people to come to His place.  If we lift up Jesus the way He should be lifted, then He will do the drawing of God’s people to Himself and God’s place. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “God Foretells Of Redemption” and it is based on Isaiah 49:1-13.  

Today’s study is a look at how God has used His Servant to save His people, both within the servant nation and the rest of the world.  God’s people are those God has chosen to save from eternal death.  He has something planned for them. 

They have passed the test of faith.  For passing the test of faith, they shall receive and inherit what God has next for them.  Whatever that is it is the reason they and the world in which they inhabit was created. 

The text keeps referring to “the Servant”.  This Servant is no one individual but a collection of people and groups who have been employed into God’s service for the purpose of seeking, sanctifying and saving His people. 

In verse 1, the Servant declares to the world that He was foreordained.  His mission and purpose predated His physical existence.  Furthermore, He says the Creator has made Him to be a special weapon able to overcome and penetrate every defense that may come against it.  The Servant will be used to manifest and display God’s glory. 

The Servant then confesses that He has not accomplished what He was used for in reference to Israel’s role as a nation to live up to be God’s chosen and holy people as the example to the rest of the world.  But the Servant declares His fate is in God’s hand and that God will do what He must to see that His Servant is successful in carrying out His purpose. 

Again, the Servant declares His preordained purpose.  This time not only will He be the means to Israel’s restoration but He will be revealed to the rest of the world to secure God’s people everywhere. 

In verse 6, note the language of those chosen among Israel.  Likewise, God has, and is, choosing people in every place and in every time for His own. 

In verse 8, God reassures His Servant that He has preserved Him and has been biding His time for Him to continue and complete His mission.  God is withholding the Servant’s revelation until an appointed time. 

At that time, the Servant will establish a covenant people from every part of the world and even the most remote and godless places on earth.  As Jesus declared, there will be One Shepherd and One fold. 

At this time, the Servant shall declare the salvation of the Lord and fill and comfort all those who mourn and hunger and thirst after righteousness.  Their every spiritual need will be met.  God will reassure His people that He has not abandoned them by comforting them in every manner they need. 

The Servant will make the way plain and cast down and remove the barriers for all of God’s people to come to Him.  Let the rejoicing begin the prophet says because the Lord has rescued and saved His people by the hand of His Servant and given them the means to overcome all of their afflictions and discomforts. 

So Isaiah tells us of and describes God’s Servant as a polished arrow and sharp sword ready to be used in the manner and time of His choosing to defeat everything and anything that will stand in the way of Him securing the souls of His children. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “God Foretells Destruction” and it is based on Isaiah 47:10-15.  

Today’s study looks at how God can use others to carry out His will and purpose and then judge them for the manner in which they executed that purpose and conduct themselves afterward.  Such was the case when God used the Babylonian empire to judge Judah for their refusal to repent and obey His word. 

God gave them plenty of space to repent, but they were determined to ignore God’s grace and mercy.  The Babylonians came and utterly destroyed the city of Jerusalem and the temple and many, if not most, of those who were not killed were led into captivity and servitude of the Babylonians. 

In today’s text, Isaiah proclaims God’s judgement upon those He used to judge His own people.  In it, God declares that the Babylonians have totally ignored any role He had in allowing them to achieve the things they had and badly mistreated His people. 

They boasted in what they saw as what they themselves had done all by themselves and how they didn’t have, get or need any help from God or anyone else.  Beside all that, they felt unaccountable for their wickedness and actions as if no one was looking who could even question what they were doing. 

This attitude is very descriptive of a large number of people living in the United States and throughout much of the world.  Instead of being humbled and thankful, the Babylonians were prideful, unthankful and boastful.  In much the same way, people today have lost all shame, are unthankful to God and boast in the things that have been made and created to make life easier and more enjoyable. 

Isaiah tells the Babylonians that they are headed for a big fall and nothing they can do can prevent it.  Unseen and unexpected devastation is coming.  Today, people don’t expect and don’t see the judgement of God coming upon our arrogant and idolatrous behavior.  So, when it comes, it shall come as a shock and big surprise for most people. 

Isaiah tells the Babylonians to call upon all the people and things that have listened to and placed their trust in to help and deliver them.  He mocks them in saying that perhaps they will save them.  The same is similar and true today. 

Human counsel, remedies and ideas about how to live without God shall all fail when called upon to deliver us and will lead to disaster.  A society built upon and believing in eternal unaccountability will eventually collapse under the weight of its own sin and unrighteousness. 

Isaiah warns Babylon it is like dried wood, straw and stubble ready to be set afire.  Nothing will be able to put out the fire or save them.  Today, some people are allowing themselves to be used in part because they are convinced there is something in it for them while others are unwittingly being used to promote the ambitions and greed of people who are willing to lie, distort, misrepresent, mislead and do just about anything against the truth if it will help them achieve their goals. 

The people in Babylon thought there was no cost or consequence for their behavior and they ended up losing everything.  People today are being convinced there is no God watching and neither is there anyone or anything outside our own selfish and corrupt laws to hold us accountable for our actions.  The Babylonians were mistaken and suffered severe consequences and so are and shall people today. 

The sad thing is that those who fear God and know the good God wishes for us will suffer alongside those who don’t.  Our only chance to delay or avoid God’s judgement, it for those of us who fear His name to stand up and resist being used by the unscrupulous people or becoming part of them who are corrupting society with their attacks against the truth and efforts to polarize and set people against each other. 

There is so much potential for the world if we stop working against each other and begin to work for the benefit and common welfare of all. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “The Spiritual Fruit of Freedom” and it is based on Galatians 5:16-26.  

Christianity is not just about personal salvation, but it is also about understanding what God has done, is doing and shall do.  Up to this point in his letter, the Apostle Paul has been explaining to the Galatian church the difference between salvation by the law and salvation by faith.  Assuming he has made his point, he concludes by telling his readers to walk in the Spirit which they have received by faith and they shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 

This word walk carries with it the meaning of continual conducting of oneself.  Conduct oneself in or by the will of the Spirit of God and one will not, nor cannot, conduct oneself according to the dictates of one’s own selfish desires. 

No person can serve two masters.  The Spirit and our flesh, which is our own selfish will, be at odds with one another.  No one can go both east and west or north and south simultaneously.  We are therefore slaves or servants of whom we yield to obey whether the Spirit or our flesh.  Our master is evident by what we do. 

Paul begins to innumerate evidences that our master is our flesh if we are engaging in these practices.  Those things, though not a complete list, are a representative sample of things people will do when they are not walking in and being led by the Spirit and the flesh is their master. 

Furthermore, those who are being led by the Spirit are not being judged or justified by the law.  Those who are engaging in these and like acts are not walking in the Spirit, are not justified by faith and shall not enter the kingdom of God. 

Contrarily, those who are led by the Spirit will have a virtuous set of attributes manifested in their lives absent the works of the flesh.  There is no law against these godly and divine virtues so no law is violated. 

To be in Christ, the power of the flesh to rule and dictate what one does must be put to death.  If and when we see the manifestation of the works of the flesh in our lives, it is because our will has not been completely submitted to Christ.  It may be making progress toward that end, but until it is dead it will continue to be in charge. 

The scripture does not support this idea that some espouse of the flesh dying and coming back to life time and time again.  These notions are attempts to claim we are being led by the Spirit while we continue to indulge in the works of the flesh. 

Getting back to salvation through faith, since we seek to be justified by faith Paul said let us walk and be led by the Spirit which comes as a result of faith in Christ. 

Finally, Paul tells them not to let anything allow them to develop a spirit or sense of superiority which conceit means in this context.  When one is walking in the Spirit and has overcome the works of the flesh, if one is not careful, one may begin to think of oneself more highly than one ought. 

One may even begin to chide others or even look down on others who may desire, but have not achieved the death of the flesh.  And the opposite is true of those who may envy the spiritual walk of others in comparison to their own spiritual walk. 

Instead, there should be a spirit of oneness as a group of climbers all attempting to reach the peak of a mountain.  Some have to be the first to reach the summit before others.  All will not step on the summit at the same time.  

But Paul is saying to those on top and were first to reach the summit not to feel superior to those who are still in the climb and those who are climbing not to envy those who have reach the top.  

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

Comments

Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “The Nature of Christian Freedom” and it is based on Galatians 5:1-15.  

Last week in the study entitled “Freedom and the Law”, chapter 3 of Apostle Paul letter to the Galatian church provided reasons why they nor no one else can be justified by the law.  In chapter 5 of this same letter, he continues along this same objective and emphasizes the consequences of abandoning justification by faith. 

He tells his readers to resist any attempt to compromise the liberty they have in faith in Christ and not allow themselves to get entangled in the yoke or control of bondage of the Law.  If anyone started down that path by being circumcised as a way to be justified, then the obvious question is why should anyone stop there? 

He argues once this is done for justification, then one in indebted to all the law and not just this one thing.  By doing this, Christ has become ineffective for their salvation and they have fallen from the grace that faith provides and are indebted and enslaved to the entire law.  Because now they believe they need something besides Christ, namely the law, to be justified. 

The Spirit is what gives reason to hope for righteousness by faith and the Spirit did not come by works of the law but by the believing of faith.  Therefore, things such as circumcision makes no difference, because justification is based on faith that is expressed by and through love. 

He tells them they started well in faith, but something happened to make them becomes beggars of the law.  He said it was certainty not him who got them off track.  He has confidence though that they will not tolerate this type of teaching or it that it will spread.  Furthermore, those who did this will be judged by God for what they have done. 

In a reference to rumors that he was in agreement with this need for circumcision, he said if that was so, why then is he still being persecuted by these same people over Christ?  He was very upset with those who were doing this so much so he suggested that they should metaphorically lose a certain body part. 

He summaries this part of his letter by urging them to use wisely the liberty and freedom they have in Christ and serve one another in love.  All the requirements of the law they have been asked to conform to can be summed up in and by loving their neighbors as themselves. 

This is the essences and core of all Christian teaching and doctrine.  It is what too many Christian communities in the past and today have missed and overlooked as they got and are caught up in political and cultural fights for power, possessions and control. 

Christ’s name has been and is being used to justify the ambitions and desires of men when it was and is only intended to extend God’s offer of salvation to lost humanity.  There has been and currently is an unprecedented level of biting and devouring of others by many calling themselves Christians and who use Jesus’ name to justify their causes. 

It is a lack of love, understanding and compassion for others driven mostly by a desire to have things go and be a certain and only way.  They amount to earthly and sensuous ambitions and desires completely devoid of Christ’s real mission and teaching.  Paul warns of this because it will lead to the consumption or destruction of those being caught up in it. 

Christianity is freedom to love God and others by imitating and following Christ.  If we had never even heard of the law, Christ is the end of the law.  We only need listen, watch, obey and imitate Him and we will fulfill all the requirements of God’s holy law. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

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Greetings members and friends and welcome to another commentary and preview to this Sunday’s study of the Word.  This Sunday’s study text is entitled “Freedom And The Law” and it is based on Galatians 3:18-29.  

Today’s study is about those who are and have become the spiritual descendants of Abraham and heir with him to the promises God made to him.  The main point Apostle Paul wants to make to his readers in Galatia is that the pathway to both becoming a descendant and heir is through faith and not the law. 

This part of Paul’s letter to the church there was initiated because a number of the Galatian disciples were questioning whether it was necessary to fulfill a requirement of Jewish law to be circumcised in order to be fully accepted by God.  They got this idea from Jews who were coming behind places Paul had been and contradicting and undermining Paul’s teaching in and of the primacy of faith alone. 

Paul writes to them and makes several arguments to refute this claim of justification by the law the Jews were making.  He reminds them that they first received the Spirit and His gifts not by anything they did or had knowledge of concerning the law, but by the hearing and believing of faith.  This is an acknowledgement that God has accepted them by or through their faith. 

Next he tells them that Abraham received the promise before the law was given through Moses and the giving of the law did not nullify the promise or covenant God made with Abraham.  Abraham was justified and declared righteous not by the works of the law, but by faith.  He believed God and God counted Him righteous on that basis. 

He concludes that they are Abraham’s seed and heirs to the promise through the faith of Abraham and not by the works of the law they may perform. 

Paul answers two questions that arise from the doctrine of justification by faith.  One question relates to what then is the purpose of the law if justification is through faith.  Paul explains that the purpose of the law was and still is to expose transgressions. 

A second question asks if the law then is against or in conflict with the promises of God.  Again, Paul answers that law was given as a stop gap measure until Christ.  The law alone was not able to provide life for humanity and make people righteous because of the transgressions.  Yet it has and does act as a guide to let man know what is the will of God. 

But faith supersedes the law and does what the law is incapable of doing.  While the law is a rule, measure or standard by which something or someone can be measured or evaluated as to how close one comes to abiding by it, its purpose is not and never was intended to make people righteous or just before God. 

Just and righteousness is the purview of faith.  Faith goes beyond an act or work and deals with the intent of the heart and mind of the spirit.  Faith takes into account a person’s desire for and importance of relationship with God. 

The law of itself can’t do and reveal what only faith alone can.  It is by and through faith that people without the law, with the law, who broke the law both knowing and unknowing, willingly and unwillingly are justified before God. 

Faith reveals something about us.  The law can only expose or inform our conscience about certain aspects of God’s will and expectations.  It cannot nor is it intended to make us righteous or just before God. 

Christians and God-fearing people are free from the law in any attempt to be or made righteous or just by it and are bound by faith to be and made just and righteous before God.  The law is not invalidated or rendered void by faith, to the contrary faith vindicates or proves the righteousness of the law. 

Well, be sure to look over the study again and come prepared to offer your comments, questions and perspective on the meaning of the study.  If you can’t attend your own Sunday School class this Sunday, you can join us live and online at 9:00 am at www.fbmbc.org and clicking the online services link. 

You can also join us live by dialing 508 924-2890.  If you have any comments or questions, be sure to place them in the comment section or you can share them on Sunday.  So, let’s all have a great lesson and discussion this Sunday and remember to fear God and keep His commandments. 

Pastor Jordan

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