Listen along as we continue our time through Galatians.
Notes//Quotes:
Galatians 1:6-10 - Kim J Reading
That was another reason why local Jewish communities wo“Seen from an outsider’s perspective, Paul had done something totally unacceptable both to the local Jewish community and to the wider Greco-Roman society, the social and civic fabric of the towns in southern Turkey. For the Jews, he had declared that anyone who belonged to Messiah Jesus was part of Abraham’s family, an heir-...
Listen along as we continue our time through Galatians.
Notes//Quotes:
Galatians 1:6-10 - Kim J Reading
That was another reason why local Jewish communities wo“Seen from an outsider’s perspective, Paul had done something totally unacceptable both to the local Jewish community and to the wider Greco-Roman society, the social and civic fabric of the towns in southern Turkey. For the Jews, he had declared that anyone who belonged to Messiah Jesus was part of Abraham’s family, an heir-in-waiting to the worldwide promises of Genesis, Isaiah, and the Psalms. For the local pagan communities, he had, without a by-your-leave, established a network of communities whose members did not worship the local gods, offering as their excuse the strange claim that they were Abraham’s family and thus entitled to the privilege granted to the Jewish communities.That was another reason why the local Jewish Communities would be horrified: If this new group were to claim the same exemption, without in fact being ethnically Jewish, would not the pagan authorities clamp down and maybe attack them all? Paul was upsetting the delicate, and at times fraught, social balance.”
- N.T. Wright
“When the glow of justification is ascribed to another, and a snare is laid for the consciences of men, the Savior no longer occupies his place, and the doctrine of the gospel is utterly ruined.”
- John Calvin
“First, it teaches that good works are enough to get to God. If all good people can know God, then Jesus’ death was not necessary; all it takes is virtue. The trouble is, this means bad people have no hope, contradicting the gospel, which invites “both good and bad” to God’s feast (Matthew 22:10). If you say people are saved by being good, then only “the good” can come in to God’s feast. The gospel offer becomes exclusive, not inclusive. Second, it encourages people to think that if they are tolerant and open, they are pleasing to God. They don’t need grace—they get eternal life for themselves. And so “glory for ever” (v 5) goes to them, for being good enough for heaven. The gospel, however, challenges people to see their radical sin. Without that sense of one’s own evil, the knowledge of God’s grace will not be transforming, and we will not understand how much God is glorified by the presence of anyone at all in heaven.”
- Timothy Keller
“And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. 2 For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, 4 and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, 5 so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.”
—1 Corinthians 2:1-5
Questions:
Is salvation the sheer grace of God—or is it something else?
To whom or what are we really looking to for salvation and to make sense of the world in which we live?
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