History gives perspective. And this is also true for biblical history. Its always helped me when Witness Lee would give in the opening messages of his Life-Studies a background of the book he was covering. Last Friday I started reading chapter 3 of the Life-Study of Galatians, and in this book knowing the background really helps you understand why Paul’s so fired up.
Take a look at Galatians 1:6-7 which says, I marvel that you are so quickly removing from Him who has called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; only there are some who trouble you and desire to pervert the gospel of Christ. Paul's talking about the Judaizers in these verses--people who went around teaching the new believers that it wasn’t good enough to just have faith in Christ but they also needed to follow the law.
Take a look at Galatians 1:6-7 which says, I marvel that you are so quickly removing from Him who has called you in the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another; only there are some who trouble you and desire to pervert the gospel of Christ. Paul's talking about the Judaizers in these verses--people who went around teaching the new believers that it wasn’t good enough to just have faith in Christ but they also needed to follow the law. This particular background gave Paul the opportunity in this Epistle to give a stark contrast between God’s Son and Judaism. So Paul opens up by telling the Galatians that as a top Pharisee he persecuted the believers until the day the Son of God revealed was revealed to him on the road to Damascus (Gal 1:15-16). And that caused him to ask the question, "Who are You, Lord?" (Acts 9:5). I heard a brother say once in a message that through the rest of Paul's Christian life, the Lord answered that question.
Paul wanted the Galatian believers to see who Christ is--He is not a doctrine or someone distant in the heavens, but He is a living Person who indwells all the believers. I like these excerpts from pages 22, 23, and 25 because they explain why there's such a stark contrast between Judaism and Christ:
As the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), Christ is far superior to Judaism and its traditions (Gal. 1:13-14). The Judaizers bewitched the Galatians so that they considered the ordinances of the law above the Son of the living God….In his experience, Paul realized that there is no comparison between the Son of the living God and Judaism with its dead traditions from his fathers….Therefore, what Paul preached was not the law, but Christ the Son of God….Instead of focusing his attention on this living Person, man has a natural tendency to direct his attention to religion with its tradition....The focal point of the Bible is not practices, doctrines, or ordinances—it is the living Person of the Son of God. (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Galatians. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1979, Print.)
After reading this it makes me feel that I need the Son of God to be revealed every day!
Other Blogs on the Life Studies of Galatians:
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