Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
[“We who are Jews by birth] … know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ.”
Summary: The Jews that Paul refers to are not a homogeneous group. They are, for the most part, people who have stumbled over the “stumbling stone (Romans 9:32).
Continue reading “Galatians 2:16a – Challenge Course”They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised.
Summary: God’s plan for the salvation of the world he created had to be carried out in two parts. The first part involved Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross. The second part was telling people about Jesus.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:9b – Divide and Conquer”
Not so long ago, when someone made a statement of questionable veracity, those listening might let it slide as a possible misstatement or simply a difference of opinion. Today, whenever someone disagrees with someone else it is common to hear (or read) the cry, “Liar!”
Jesus replied, “If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me. Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word.’
So who gets to decide who is a liar and who isn’t? To accurately tell if a person is lying one has to know two things. First, was the statement made actually false, and second, did the person making a false statement make it knowingly? To my knowledge, only two people can ever know with certitude if a person was making a false statement intentionally. That would be the person who made the statement themselves, and someone who knows their innermost thoughts. This second party to knowing the truth is God. No one else on the planet can truly know what was intended when the statement was made.
Continue reading “A Liar Like You”