| Spiritual Non-Fiction posted April 8, 2019 |
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Putting chains back on your soul?
What Falling from Grace Means
by Deniz22
It's amazing how quickly one can read the whole Epistle to the Galatians, especially in a modern paraphrase like the NLT.
It becomes very apparent the Epistle's target audience is not unsaved people, but saved people in danger of becoming entangled with the Law, the Ten Commandments.
It's not about receiving life from Christ but rather removing the freedom restricting elements of the Law to allow the life in Christ to flourish.
Paul makes the point in Galatians that Abraham believed the Gospel and walked in Holy freedom with God 430 years before the Law was even given!
This is a lethal blow to the teaching the Law has some place in the believer's salvation or spiritually maturing process.
All of Paul's letter (and who knew better than this former 'Pharisee of the Pharisees' the Law cannot save) was directed to keeping the gullible Galatians out of the clutches of the "Law teachers".
He warns them against observing the ritual of circumcision which would put them under obligation to keep the whole Law. In this warning, Paul destroys the argument Christ only died for offenses against the ceremonial law but expects us to keep the moral law.
No, according to Paul, the two elements are linked together and demand perfect obedience 24/7 for winning God's favor.
How different the Gospel which Christ ratified with His death as the sinless sacrifice and rose from the grave to implement and enhance in every believer.
To think there is any other way of acceptance with God other than simple faith in Jesus is to miss the grace of God, which alone saves us from Hell.
However, these Galatians HAD believed with great joy by receiving Paul's original message. They were already saved when Paul warned them of the danger of "falling from grace".
It stands to reason, one cannot fall from a place one has never been. As soon as a person trusts Christ he/she receives eternal life and can never be lost.
So Paul wants them to understand they need to keep believing in the grace of God, not to be saved all over again, but to grow in that grace.
The way to do that is to "walk in the Spirit" which is another way of saying, keep on trusting the Christ who saved your soul to also save your present life from winding up as bonfire material at the Judgement Seat of Christ.
SECOND RESPONSE, SAME SUBJECT: Paul is speaking to the saved Galatians and warning them not to get entangled with the Law. If they do, they will be unable to "grow in grace."
Galatians 1:3 "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen".
Notice Paul says here, "Christ gave Himself for our sins" (this saves us from Hell forever) but the next phrase addresses the real subject of Galatians, how believers are to overcome evil here and now by living a victorious life through the Spirit's enabling of our new natures. His resurrection, and our fellowship with Him through the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in us which is pleasing to God and profitable for men.
The Judaizers offered the Law not so much as an ALTERNATIVE to Christ but as an ADDITION to His already completed work of atonement. If the saved Galatians accepted this thinking, they would nullify, not their eternal salvation, but rather the sanctifying work of the Spirit within them. Thus they would "fall from grace".
It's amazing how quickly one can read the whole Epistle to the Galatians, especially in a modern paraphrase like the NLT.
It becomes very apparent the Epistle's target audience is not unsaved people, but saved people in danger of becoming entangled with the Law, the Ten Commandments.
It's not about receiving life from Christ but rather removing the freedom restricting elements of the Law to allow the life in Christ to flourish.
Paul makes the point in Galatians that Abraham believed the Gospel and walked in Holy freedom with God 430 years before the Law was even given!
This is a lethal blow to the teaching the Law has some place in the believer's salvation or spiritually maturing process.
All of Paul's letter (and who knew better than this former 'Pharisee of the Pharisees' the Law cannot save) was directed to keeping the gullible Galatians out of the clutches of the "Law teachers".
He warns them against observing the ritual of circumcision which would put them under obligation to keep the whole Law. In this warning, Paul destroys the argument Christ only died for offenses against the ceremonial law but expects us to keep the moral law.
No, according to Paul, the two elements are linked together and demand perfect obedience 24/7 for winning God's favor.
How different the Gospel which Christ ratified with His death as the sinless sacrifice and rose from the grave to implement and enhance in every believer.
To think there is any other way of acceptance with God other than simple faith in Jesus is to miss the grace of God, which alone saves us from Hell.
However, these Galatians HAD believed with great joy by receiving Paul's original message. They were already saved when Paul warned them of the danger of "falling from grace".
It stands to reason, one cannot fall from a place one has never been. As soon as a person trusts Christ he/she receives eternal life and can never be lost.
So Paul wants them to understand they need to keep believing in the grace of God, not to be saved all over again, but to grow in that grace.
The way to do that is to "walk in the Spirit" which is another way of saying, keep on trusting the Christ who saved your soul to also save your present life from winding up as bonfire material at the Judgement Seat of Christ.
SECOND RESPONSE, SAME SUBJECT: Paul is speaking to the saved Galatians and warning them not to get entangled with the Law. If they do, they will be unable to "grow in grace."
Galatians 1:3 "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen".
Notice Paul says here, "Christ gave Himself for our sins" (this saves us from Hell forever) but the next phrase addresses the real subject of Galatians, how believers are to overcome evil here and now by living a victorious life through the Spirit's enabling of our new natures. His resurrection, and our fellowship with Him through the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in us which is pleasing to God and profitable for men.
The Judaizers offered the Law not so much as an ALTERNATIVE to Christ but as an ADDITION to His already completed work of atonement. If the saved Galatians accepted this thinking, they would nullify, not their eternal salvation, but rather the sanctifying work of the Spirit within them. Thus they would "fall from grace".
It becomes very apparent the Epistle's target audience is not unsaved people, but saved people in danger of becoming entangled with the Law, the Ten Commandments.
It's not about receiving life from Christ but rather removing the freedom restricting elements of the Law to allow the life in Christ to flourish.
Paul makes the point in Galatians that Abraham believed the Gospel and walked in Holy freedom with God 430 years before the Law was even given!
This is a lethal blow to the teaching the Law has some place in the believer's salvation or spiritually maturing process.
All of Paul's letter (and who knew better than this former 'Pharisee of the Pharisees' the Law cannot save) was directed to keeping the gullible Galatians out of the clutches of the "Law teachers".
He warns them against observing the ritual of circumcision which would put them under obligation to keep the whole Law. In this warning, Paul destroys the argument Christ only died for offenses against the ceremonial law but expects us to keep the moral law.
No, according to Paul, the two elements are linked together and demand perfect obedience 24/7 for winning God's favor.
How different the Gospel which Christ ratified with His death as the sinless sacrifice and rose from the grave to implement and enhance in every believer.
To think there is any other way of acceptance with God other than simple faith in Jesus is to miss the grace of God, which alone saves us from Hell.
However, these Galatians HAD believed with great joy by receiving Paul's original message. They were already saved when Paul warned them of the danger of "falling from grace".
It stands to reason, one cannot fall from a place one has never been. As soon as a person trusts Christ he/she receives eternal life and can never be lost.
So Paul wants them to understand they need to keep believing in the grace of God, not to be saved all over again, but to grow in that grace.
The way to do that is to "walk in the Spirit" which is another way of saying, keep on trusting the Christ who saved your soul to also save your present life from winding up as bonfire material at the Judgement Seat of Christ.
SECOND RESPONSE, SAME SUBJECT: Paul is speaking to the saved Galatians and warning them not to get entangled with the Law. If they do, they will be unable to "grow in grace."
Galatians 1:3 "Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen".
Notice Paul says here, "Christ gave Himself for our sins" (this saves us from Hell forever) but the next phrase addresses the real subject of Galatians, how believers are to overcome evil here and now by living a victorious life through the Spirit's enabling of our new natures. His resurrection, and our fellowship with Him through the Spirit produces the fruit of the Spirit in us which is pleasing to God and profitable for men.
The Judaizers offered the Law not so much as an ALTERNATIVE to Christ but as an ADDITION to His already completed work of atonement. If the saved Galatians accepted this thinking, they would nullify, not their eternal salvation, but rather the sanctifying work of the Spirit within them. Thus they would "fall from grace".
 Recognized |
John 5:24 New King James Version (NKJV)
Life and Judgment Are Through the Son
24 �¢??Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.
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