We continue our study of the New Testament and this month we dedicate to Paul’s Letter to the Galatians. We have little doubt that this Epistle to Galatians was written by Apostol Paul and most likely written in the same time frame as 2 Corinthians, giving further explanation to that epistle’s great proclamation in 5:17: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”
Paul’s advocacy of this new reality struck at the very heart of established Judaism’s exclusiveness. The law, as the guardian against man’s immorality, the tutor which pointed toward the holiness of God, while revealing the imperfect state of man, has now been superseded by the appropriation of God’s own Spirit into the life of each one who was found to be in Christ. Thus, rather than standing as an outsider to God’s will and ways, the new reality brought mankind into an “insider” position, where the Spirit would interact directly with each person’s own nature. This interaction called for no mediator or ceremonial signs of inclusion. People’s response, in the light of this new reality, was to “keep in step with the Spirit,” to regard all of mankind the way God does, and to continually “test” themselves as to the constancy of their walk by comparing their actions and attitudes to that of the “fruits of the Spirit” and, conversely, to the “works of the flesh. Bearing spiritual “fruit,” not circumcising the flesh, had become the tangible sign of one’s inclusion in the new reality of God’s kingdom.
Why must we forgive? Jesus was unequivocal on this point: As his followers, we are required to forgive those who sin against us (Matthew 6:15). But what if we don’t feel like we’ve forgiven them? How do we know, then, if we have truly forgiven? The Holy Spirit, thank God, often enables people to forgive even though they are not sure how they did it. But forgiving and knowing that we’ve truly forgiven, comes easier when we understand the realities of forgiveness. In our discussion of this subject, we give your prospective from the New Testament point of view.
Thomas Chalmers was a great preacher and professor of theology at the University of Edinburg. In our programming we try to bring you and discuss his best sermons that captures attention of all people in 19th century Scotland.
“Who hath abolished death and brought life and immortality to light by the gospel'” (2 Timothy 1:10).
The men of the earth carry on their designs and their doings, just as if on earth they were to live forever. Each is so intent upon his own earthly object-every mind is so occupied with its own earthly scheme-every countenance speaks such deep and eager anxiety after some favorite, yet earthly ambition-each individual is so decidedly embarked, with all his powers of attention and perseverance, on some earthly undertaking-That surely one might think, it can be naught of a trifling or temporary nature, which either creates or keeps up so mighty a stir among our species. And yet it is not the less true, that all the busy activities of all these people have their upshot in forgetfulness. It is not the greatness or the durability of the objects, which has called forth the effort and the strenuousness of men. It is the folly of men, which urges them to the pursuit of paltry and evanescent objects-a folly which overlooks the arithmetic of our few little years, and has invested time with the characters of eternity -a folly which all the demonstrations of experience have been unable to rectify; and which, after the mighty sweep of countless generations from the face of our world, reigns with unabated strength over the human heart, and finds the men of the present day as unwise and as infatuated as ever. Death is a theme of mighty importance; and every variety of eloquence has been exhausted, upon the magnitude of its desolations.
There is not a place where human beings congregate together, that does not, in the fleeting history of its inmates, give forth the lesson of their mortality. Is it a house? Death enters unceremoniously there, and with rude hand, tears asunder the dearest of our sympathies. Is it a town?
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Categories: RUSSIAN