Reflecting God – Embrace Holy Living - WordAction - The Foundry Publishing House of Kansas City, Missouri, United States - The Global Church of the Nazarene for Wednesday, 20 September 2017 "Faith and The Spirit" by Robert W. Smith - Galatians 3:1-14Galatians 3:1 You stupid Galatians! Who has put you under a spell? Before your very eyes Yeshua the Messiah was clearly portrayed as having been put to death as a criminal! 2 I want to know from you just this one thing: did you receive the Spirit by legalistic observance of Torah commands or by trusting in what you heard and being faithful to it? 3 Are you that stupid? Having begun with the Spirit’s power, do you think you can reach the goal under your own power? 4 Have you suffered so much for nothing? If that’s the way you think, your suffering certainly will have been for nothing! 5 What about God, who supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you — does he do it because of your legalistic observance of Torah commands or because you trust in what you heard and are faithful to it?
6 It was the same with Avraham: “He trusted in God and was faithful to him, and that was credited to his account as righteousness.”[Galatians 3:6 Genesis 15:6] 7 Be assured, then, that it is those who live by trusting and being faithful who are really children of Avraham. 8 Also the Tanakh, foreseeing that God would consider the Gentiles righteous when they live by trusting and being faithful, told the Good News to Avraham in advance by saying, “In connection with you, all the Goyim will be blessed.”[Galatians 3:8 Genesis 12:3] 9 So then, those who rely on trusting and being faithful are blessed along with Avraham, who trusted and was faithful.
10 For everyone who depends on legalistic observance of Torah commands lives under a curse, since it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the Scroll of the Torah.”[Galatians 3:10 Deuteronomy 27:26] 11 Now it is evident that no one comes to be declared righteous by God through legalism, since “The person who is righteous will attain life by trusting and being faithful.”[Galatians 3:11 Habakkuk 2:4] 12 Furthermore, legalism is not based on trusting and being faithful, but on [a misuse of] the text that says, “Anyone who does these things will attain life through them.”[Galatians 3:12 Leviticus 18:5] 13 The Messiah redeemed us from the curse pronounced in the Torah by becoming cursed on our behalf; for the Tanakh says, “Everyone who hangs from a stake comes under a curse.”[Galatians 3:13 Deuteronomy 21:22–23] 14 Yeshua the Messiah did this so that in union with him the Gentiles might receive the blessing announced to Avraham, so that through trusting and being faithful, we might receive what was promised, namely, the Spirit.
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The best parent faces a major challenge when a child cries out, “But you promised!” A promise fulfilled is an expression of the integrity of one’s character. Can a child believe that a parent will fulfill the promise that now shapes the future of their relationship?Paul reminded the churches in Galatia of the story of Abraham, and how God promised this childless “father” that he would become “a great nation” (Genesis 12:2). Could Abraham believe God to fulfill such a scandalous promise? Building on Genesis 15:6 (Abraham “believed the LORD”), Paul used this word to teach believers that “those who rely on faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith” (Galatians 3:9). The life of Abraham teaches us that God is a promise-keeper.
Paul went on to assert that this faith is the means by which “we . . . receive the promise of the Spirit” (v. 14; see Acts 2:33). Furthermore, God uses this “free gift” in believers to complete the work of Christ. Therefore, knowing that the Christ-believers in Galatia were living by the Spirit, he exhorted them to “keep in step with the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). It is our task as well.
Hymn for Today:
"Faith is the Victory" by John H. Yates
1. Encamped along the hills of light,
Ye Christian soldiers rise,
And press the battle ere the night
Shall veil the glowing skies;
Against the foe in vales below
Let all our strength be hurled;
Faith is the victory, we know,
That overcomes the world.
Refrain: Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
O glorious victory,
That overcomes the world.
2. His banner over us is love,
Our sword the Word of God;
We tread the road the saints before
With shouts of triumph trod.
By faith, they like a whirlwind’s breath,
Swept on o’er every field;
The faith by which they conquered death
Is still our shining shield.
Refrain: Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
O glorious victory,
That overcomes the world.
3. On every hand the foe we find
Drawn up in dread array;
Let tents of ease be left behind,
And onward to the fray.
Salvation’s helmet on each head,
With truth all girt about,
The earth shall tremble ’neath our tread,
And echo with our shout.
Refrain: Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
O glorious victory,
That overcomes the world.
4. To him that overcomes the foe,
White raiment shall be giv’n;
Before the angels he shall know
His name confessed in heav’n;
Then onward from the hills of light,
Our hearts with love aflame,
We’ll vanquish all the hosts of night,
In Jesus’ conqu’ring name.
Refrain: Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
O glorious victory,
That overcomes the world.
Those who obey his commands remain united with him and he with them.
Here is how we know that he remains united with us: by the Spirit whom he gave us.
(1 John 3:24).That many people in Grenada will come to know Yeshua the Messiah and receive the fullness of the Ruach HaKodesh.
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