Subject 15 : The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the GALATIANS
[Chapter 3-1] Always Live Your Life By the Faith in The Gospel of The Water and the Spirit (Galatians 3:1-11)
(Galatians 3:1-11)
“O
foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the
truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as
crucified? This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the
Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so
foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by
the flesh? Have you suffered so many things in vain—if indeed it was in
vain? Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles
among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of
faith?—just as Abraham ‘believed God, and it was accounted to him for
righteousness.’ Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons
of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the
Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying,
‘In you all the nations shall be blessed.’ So then those who are of
faith are blessed with believing Abraham. For as many as are of the
works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed is
everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the
book of the law, to do them.’ But that no one is justified by the law in
the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith.’”
What Kind of People Are You?
Even
nowadays there are those among Christians who lead foolish spiritual
lives. To such Christians, the Bible says, “Are you so foolish? Having
begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?”
(Galatians 3:3). They live their lives without knowing the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. They say that they are serving God, but they
cannot but minister in foolish ways because of their ignorance of the
true gospel. On the contrary, we can believe in our Lord as our Savior
and serve Him because we believe in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Thus, we are delivering the souls of many from all their sins
with the faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit in our
hearts.
We
who believe in this true gospel can live with the Holy Spirit in our
hearts. Thus, we can be led by the Holy Spirit, who moves and compels us
to follow our Lord. However, many more people follow the ambitions of
their own flesh rather than God’s will, because they don’t believe in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit, and therefore have not received
the Holy Spirit. God has granted us the gift of the remission of sins by
presenting us with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Thus, the
final evidence that we have been delivered from all our sins lies in our
faith in the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. Because we have
believed in that Word, we have received the remission of sins. Our
remission of sins depends utterly on God and our faith of the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. God has granted us the gospel Truth of the
water and the Spirit and further allowed for true salvation to those who
believe in it. The God-given gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit
is God’s gift of salvation to all sinners.
However,
the believers in Galatia were following the teachings of the
circumcisionists. Thus, the Apostle Paul rebuked the believers for their
foolishness, saying, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that
you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was
clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” (Galatians 3:1). They wanted
to become God’s people by receiving the circumcision in their flesh, but
this was far off from the true faith.
Thus,
Paul asked again, “This only I want to learn from you; Did you receive
the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”
(Galatians 3:2) This happened because the Jewish Christians were falsely
insisting that they could only become God’s own people by receiving
physical circumcision. Some members of the churches in Galatia really
appeared very foolish enough to be seduced by such false teachers.
Addressing this issue, the Apostle Paul stated that no one could receive
salvation from all his sins by the works of the Law. Hence, the Apostle
Paul required Galatian believers to have the faith with which they
could be baptized into Christ. The true faith believes that our true
salvation comes from the baptism Jesus Christ received from John the
Baptist and His consequent crucifixion on the Cross.
The
gospel Paul believed in was the gospel of the water and the Spirit. He
believed that Jesus Christ became our Savior by coming into this world,
receiving the baptism from John the Baptist to take all the sins of the
entire humanity once for all, being crucified on the Cross, and
resurrecting from the dead. Jesus Christ delivered us from all our sins
by the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Those who believe in
this gospel Truth received the gift of the Holy Spirit from God as the
gift of the remission of sins. I witness to people that the remission of
sins allows people to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I also
witness that we have become God’s children without blemish after
receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit because we have believed in the
gospel Word of the water and the Spirit.
Now,
because we have received salvation from all our sins by the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, and become the people of faith, when we hear
the Word of God, our faith in His Word is bolstered even more than
before. Right after we believed the Word of God in our hearts, the Word
of God started to move inside our hearts and let the Holy Spirit lead
us. Thus, the righteous have no different opinion in believing and
following the entire Word of God as the truth. We have no doubts in the
instructions of our predecessors in faith and following the Word of God.
Hence, we are able to receive true instructions because we are able and
willing to listen to the words of the servants of God to be the very
Word of God. We come to realize God’s will of through His servants.
We
have become joyful in our hearts for we do the righteous work by
serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Although we may be weary
in our body and spirit, the Holy Spirit has enlivened our hearts to be
united in our lives with our Lord. The Holy Spirit dwells in your hearts
and mine, and uses us as true tools of faith.
You Have to Believe in the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit from Now on
From
now on, we have to place our stronger faith in the gospel Word of the
water and the Spirit. We have to know and believe the gospel of the
water and the Spirit to be the only and true gospel. If we did not
regard it as the gospel Truth and tried to receive the physical
circumcision as the Israelites of the Old Testament times did, that
would be completely wrong. This also is a warning for those in the New
Testament times who try to receive the remission of sin by offering
their prayers of repentance. It witnesses to the fact that their faith
is very wrong. If we hold on to such faith we would receive God’s hatred
instead of God’s love. What the Apostle Paul is telling us is an
exhortation out of his faith in the Truth, which has blotted out all our
sins at once by the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Therefore, we
need to reexamine whether or not our faith is based on the gospel of the
water and the Spirit.
The
Apostle Paul told those who try to become God’s people by receiving the
circumcision on their flesh that their faith was not the true faith.
Put differently, he was admonishing that believers in the gospel Truth
of the water and the Spirit had to keep the true faith by which they
could receive the remission of sins. Right now we are following the
faith of our predecessors with faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, which is the righteousness of God. Defending our true faith is
only possible when we follow the faith of our predecessors in faith. We
are also able to live in true faith because we have witnessed to the
righteousness of God revealed in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
We
are delivered from all our sins just by believing in the righteousness
of God, which is manifested in the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
But, if we rely on the prayers of repentance or some other works of the
Law to be saved, we would clearly not have been delivered from all our
sins and still remain in eternal damnation. We were able to keep the
true faith up to this point by believing in the gospel of the water and
the Spirit. Otherwise, it would have been impossible.
What
the Apostle Paul is saying is that we have already received the
remission of sin because we believed in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. We have also received the gift of the Holy Spirit who empowers
us to live righteously. Thus, by the power of this true gospel, we have
become able to live after our Lord and spread the gospel of salvation
throughout the world. Hence, we can keep following our Lord by our faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Only thus can the righteous
lead a spiritually victorious life.
The
Apostle Paul said that he could always be thankful through the faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Yet, some members of the
churches in Galatia had been perverted by the false teachers who had
taught them a different gospel other than the true gospel of the water
and the Spirit. Thus, Paul rebuked them by asking, “Having begun in the
Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh? Have you suffered
so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain?” Paul could not allow
for such a happening. The wrong they had committed was that they tried
to receive even more acknowledgement as the people of faith by receiving
the physical circumcision although they already believed in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit.
Even
nowadays there are many people within God’s Church who have become
God’s own children by listening with their ears and believing with their
hearts the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Among those, some have
mistaken ideas that they need to offer prayers of repentance to wholly
become God’s own people. This phenomenon is akin to the legalistic faith
of the Galatian churches. These people amount to nothing more than
those who desire to make a good showing in the flesh.
Our
Lord has delivered you and me from all the sins of the world by
presenting us the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit. And He also
gives the Holy Spirit as a gift to those the very moment when they
receive the remission of sins by faith. Right now, our God is still
leading us by the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. We have
received salvation from all our sins and are able to live the eternal
life alongside our Lord by being led by the gospel Truth of the water
and the Spirit.
We
have been delivered from all our sins, united with God’s Church, and
able to follow our Lord by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Since we lead our lives after the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, we have the most correct faith of all. Those who have received
salvation from all their sins by their faith in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit are ones who perpetually deny their own righteousness.
Those who keep their faith in this true gospel are truly great before
God. Regardless of how weak we may be in our flesh, we must defend our
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This is the most
important task to the born-again.
We
cannot end up perishing by having legalistic faith of the Law, when we
have begun with the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. For
us to rely on the prayers of repentance to be sinless is to nullify the
gospel of the water and the Spirit that the Lord had completed by
sacrificing Himself. We cannot return to the legalistic faith from the
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. It is a big mistake
akin to the teachings of the circumcisionists of the Early Church age,
who insisted that one had to receive physical circumcision even after
receiving the salvation from all one’s sins.
Only
by believing in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, we can
receive the remission of sin, receive the Holy Spirit of God, and become
the servants of God. Thus, we have become the people who can live and
follow our Lord with the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit
until the end. Hence, all our life in faith must begin with faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Also, we must continue to spread
this true gospel without ceasing. We are the ones who keep following
our Lord overcoming all difficulties through the faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. We will always be victorious with our faith in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
Are You Deficient in Your Deeds?
Sometimes
our insufficiencies in the flesh become evident even though we serve
our Lord by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Still,
you and I have to live as the servants of God led by the Holy Spirit
within the faith in this true gospel. It is the most proper way of life
for us to spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I am sure this
kind of life is pleasing God. Thus, we are also joyful when we are
serving the gospel of the water and the Spirit and are united with God’s
Church. These lives of faith are indeed our own lives.
Hence,
we are truly blessed no matter how lacking we may be because we live by
faith in God. Have you received the remission of sins by believing in
the gospel of the water and the Spirit? And do you believe that the Holy
Spirit dwells in you because you believe in this true gospel? Then, we
will be able to keep our faith of the gospel of the water and the Spirit
and live united with God’s Church. We serve the gospel and seek the
benefit to the gospel. We have to follow the will of our Lord through
our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Along with God’s
own people who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we
live for God’s righteousness and for the spread of this true gospel
throughout the world.
As
we follow our Lord after we have received the remission of sins,
sometimes our insufficiencies are revealed. Isn’t that true? At such
times, we should not go before God by correcting our shortcomings in the
flesh. Rather, we should first live a life of serving the gospel by our
faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Strengthening our
faith by believing in the gospel Truth must be prior to any effort to
correct our own deficiencies to approach God. Now, we have received the
Holy Spirit and become the children of God after receiving the remission
of sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Thus,
we have to go forward united with the Lord whether unto death or life.
However,
since even the righteous are weak in their flesh, their spiritual lives
come to a halt when they think that they would solve their problems of
the flesh first. It is spiritually very wrong to put our priorities on
solving the problems of our flesh before following the righteousness of
God. This is the very carnal faith. As we follow after our Lord in the
faith of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, most of the problems of
our flesh are solved naturally. But if we try to follow our Lord after
we have taken care of our problems of flesh, we can see that we fail to
live the righteous life. Thus, we have to thrust forward in our lives of
spreading the gospel with our faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit.
It
is now autumn. The new leaves sprout in the spring, and they grow fast
by the summer time. Come autumn, the leaves fall and the fruits are
harvested. In autumn, we make romantic moods by reciting poetries.
“Simon, can you hear the sound of the fallen leaves?” Yet, the garbage
collectors scream and yell, “Damn leaves! Please fall all at once.”
However, once autumn passes and winter arrives, the tree leaves fall
even more sporadically. All the leaves have already fallen naturally in
the middle of winter.
As
such, we can know that all our problems of flesh will be taken care of
in due time if we just follow our Lord after receiving the remission of
sins through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Our
Lord is taking care of your problems of flesh as well as mine while we
are working for His gospel. What I am saying is that we should not try
to follow our Lord after we have taken care of all of our fleshly
problems. If we just follow our Lord with our faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, we will experience that all of our problems in
flesh being taken care of in no time.
If
we hang on to the problems of flesh without realizing this, we end up
living by the works of the Law despite of having started with the Holy
Spirit just as Paul warned about. Hence, we desire to live appropriate
lives following our Lord with the faith in the Word of God just as
Abraham did. We are united with our Lord and have received the remission
of sins through our faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We
place our hearts on the Lord in order to serve this gospel Truth.
Furthermore, we have to receive the spiritual blessings from God by
dying with Jesus Christ as well as being resurrected with Him. Because
we have received the remission of sins by believing in the Word of God
through the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we have to hope for the
life in the Millennial Kingdom.
For
we have become sinless by believing in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit, we must continue to live by faith. This faith is like that of
the Scripture: “For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith; as it is written, ‘The just shall live by faith’”
(Romans 1:17). Because the Holy Spirit of God dwells within our hearts,
we should live the righteous life for the rest of our lives.
Now You Can Live a Righteous Life If You Just Have Faith in the Gospel Truth
The
Apostle Paul said in Galatians 3:9, “So then those who are of faith are
blessed with believing Abraham.” We call Abraham the father of faith.
That is because Abraham followed the Word of God by his faith in it. We
are the people who have received blessings like that of Abraham. God
appeared before Abraham and told him, “I will give you an offspring. And
I will give this land Canaan to you and your descendants.” You and I
also can receive the same blessings of salvation as Abraham if we follow
and believe the written Word of God, the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. You and I have received the remission of sins by believing in
the Word of God. By doing so, we have become the children of God, and
the Holy Spirit came into our hearts.
Now,
all of us can always live by faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Until the day we enter Heaven, we must follow the Word of God by
faith. We must continue our lives in the faith in the gospel of the
water and the Spirit. If you believe in this true gospel, you must do
so. What is important is whether we believe in the gospel of the water
and the Spirit, and then we must live to spread this gospel Truth
throughout the entire world. If we believe in our hearts the gospel of
the water and the Spirit, the Holy Spirit dwells within our hearts. We
must abandon any thought of trying to solve our problems of flesh and
follow our Lord since the Holy Spirit is in our hearts. When we unite
with our Lord and follow Him in serving Him and believing in the gospel
of the water and the Spirit, all of our worries in the flesh will drop
away just like the last of the leaves fall in winter.
We
must devote ourselves to the works of God with our faith in the Word of
God. We are not supposed to solve anything on our own by our faith in
the Word of God, but rather we have to live our lives just by our faith
in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. God has commanded us to
spread the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all nations throughout
the entire world. Our Lord desires that all nations should be made His
disciples and the gospel spread to the edge of the world. Our Lord is
compelling us to become witnesses of the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. Because our Lord is well pleased when we serve the gospel of the
water and the Spirit, we must live our lives spreading this true gospel
to others. That is why we always have to live by faith. We have to
serve the gospel of the water and the Spirit by the faith in the Word of
God and follow the Lord of the Truth.
Dear
fellow believers, do not fall back into the works of the Law, nor
wonder, “why am I as such?” when your weaknesses and insufficiencies are
revealed while serving the gospel. At such times, believe even more
strongly in the Word of God and devote yourselves with higher intensity
to spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Then, you will see
that the fleshly matters in your lives having fallen away in no time.
The
Apostle Paul was frustrated with the spiritual life of the saints in
Galatia. That was because they zealously sought to receive physical
circumcision even after believing that all of their sins were blotted
out when Jesus Christ came by the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
There were such circumcisionists inside the churches in Galatia, who
insisted on the circumcision of the flesh.
Dear
fellow believers, you surely know what the physical circumcision is.
Imagine that you have gone back in time to the place where the Apostle
Paul was ministering. How would you stop someone who has led a spiritual
life well in the faith in the true gospel says, “I have to go to
receive circumcision”? We have received the remission of sins and our
salvation by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. What
should we do when there are still others who come to tell us that we
have to receive physical circumcision to become God’s own people and the
descendants of Abraham? Since they separated themselves and opposed
those who believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, it must
have been tough to the Apostle Paul.
We
have to live this age by the faith in the gospel of the water and the
Spirit. We have to follow the Word of God by our faith in the gospel of
the water and the Spirit. We have to unite with God by the faith in the
Word of God. And we have to follow our Lord till the end of the world by
our faith in the Word of God. This is not possible by our own
determination or strength without the faith in the Word of God.
If
we have become the children of God by receiving the remission of sin
and the Holy Spirit, we have to serve our Lord now, unite with the
gospel, determine to follow our Lord, and live until the end of the
world by faith. We should not calculate in the middle of our lives,
thinking, “How is my flesh? Is it right for me to be in such a
condition?” We should first believe in the Word of God, second in God,
and third in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. We have to
continuously follow the instructions of God’s Church by our faith in the
Word of God. By such faith, we have to unite with His Church in seeking
the benefit of the gospel and that of our brothers and sisters. We have
to keep the gospel and live for the glory of God, following after the
faith.
We
should not worry God in matters that worried the Apostle Paul. Paul
rebuked such people, asking, “Having begun in the Spirit, are you now
being made perfect by the flesh?” Trying to be made perfect by the flesh
is to seek after the benefits of our flesh alone even after we have
received the remission of sins. We have to serve the gospel of the water
and the Spirit by faith and follow our Lord with that faith. We should
never think that we have to make a good showing in the flesh and become
proud with stiff necks since we have received the remission of sins. You
and I should break our stubbornness in the flesh—holding fast our
spiritual pride—and live by faith in the Word of God.
Would
it not be right for us to meet with our Lord after having lived our
lives till the very end by faith since we have received the remission of
sins by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit? We are
God’s workers who should find out and lead the lost souls in order that
they would also receive the remission of sins.
The
Apostle Paul says, “So then those who are of faith are blessed with
believing Abraham” (Galatians 3:9). As he said so, we believe that God
will bless those who live by the faith in the Word of God as He blessed
Abraham.
Hence,
I will live by the faith in the gospel of the water and the Spirit till
the very end. Although I do not know what your present lots hold, if
you march forward step by step in your faith, all your problems will be
taken care of by the Lord.
I encourage you to live a righteous life till the end with faith in the gospel Truth.
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