Meditations in Galatians #14, Sunday, June 14, 2009 Galatians 3:14
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"...in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we would receive the promise of the Spirit through faith."
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So...is Paul saying that when we receive the Holy Spirit, we are receiving what You promised to Abraham? It looks like the method is the same, that is, You approved of Abraham because of his faith, and now Your Spirit indwells us because of our faith, which to me implies that You are approving of us, too. I can't imagine You living in us by Your Spirit if You disapproved of us. But we are gentiles... Oh... in Abrahams day there was nothing but gentiles... And then You chose Abraham's second son, and then Isaac's second son, and this is how You seperated the house of Israel from all of the other peoples of the planet, and from all of the other literal descendants of Abraham. This is the origin of the "Chosen people." So, Jesus, by experiencing the curse for us, has taken all who were excluded from the Promise of Eternal Life which You made to Abraham, and made it possible for them to inherit Eternal life by faith, just as Abraham did.
Can I tell them about my testimony at the Baptism in the Jordan River? Thanks. The Messianic Rabbi who was in charge had asked me to perform the Baptisms, so I asked each person to give a testimony before I baptised them, and I went first. These were my exact words: "I hereby renounce my gentile heritage, and claim my inheritance as a son of Abraham, by faith in Yahshua Ha Moshiach." (in English:Jesus, the Messiah)
Man, was that Rabbi surprised! He said that You had led him to put me in charge of the baptisms, but there is no way that he expected anything like that. Well, it was this verse that I was thinking of. Eternal life must be inherited. It cannot be earned, bought, or acquired by any means but inheritance. And Abraham was the only person thatYou had promised eternal life to. And You did it because of his faith in You. When he went to offer up his son Isaac, he did so clearly and only because he believed You were going to raise Isaac from the dead. When You declared him to be righteous, You were expressing Your approval of His faith. And You granted Him the promise of Eternal life.
So no one can ever be saved except by inheriting what You promised to Abraham. And we must become his children in order to receive his inheritance. For we who are gentiles, Paul calls this adoption. On the cross, Your Son Jesus suffered what the Law required of those who did not keep the whole Law, fulfilling the curse which separated us from Abraham's heirs. And by faith in Jesus, we become children of Abraham, thus heirs of eternal life. So this is how our salvation really works!
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Thank You for giving me a few minutes of your time. Galatians is a unique letter. It will take some time to get into Paul's mind, and from there to understand what God has chosen to reveal through the disaster that the congregation at Galatia was experiencing.
The effect of these Meditations will be cumulative, and the real benefit may have nothing to do with what I have written. I believe that the discipline of having a brief daily conversation with God about the meaning of a variety of Bible passages over a period of a few weeks, even if you come to some very different conclusions, will still be a wonderful and enlightening experience for you. At DeadRight.net, under the Yellow Pages, is some background info about Galatians. If you missed an earlier Meditation, you can still read it at DeadRight.net by going to the homepage, clicking on Newsletter, and clicking on "browse previous newsletters.