Daily Meditations on the Bible / We stand with Israel
Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified.
Summary: Trying to keep up with Paul’s logic can be challenging. Today’s passage challenges us to consider the importance of Christ’s crucifixion to Paul’s argument against circumcision.
Continue reading “Galatians 3:1b – The Best Kind of News”You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you?
Summary: Paul expresses his frustration with believers who allow the gospel to tainted. We don’t need other beliefs. We just need Jesus.
Continue reading “Galatians 3:1a – Electric Gas”I have been crucified with Christ …
Summary: When Paul says he has been “crucified with Christ,” he is speaking metaphorically.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:20a – Crucified with Christ”“For through the law I died to the law …”
Summary: The complexities of Paul’s logic can be difficult to follow. Here, we explore the meanings of life and death and how they relate to the laws of the old covenant.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:19a – Walking Away”But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also among the sinners, doesn’t that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not!
Summary: Paul tackles a legalistic conundrum as only Paul can. He lassos it, hogties it, and then throws it in our faces demanding that we confront his argument head-on.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:17 – Crime and Punishment”[“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”I said to Cephas [aka Peter] in front of them all,
Summary: Conflict resolution can be a challenging topic. In this passage Paul illustrates a technique for dealing with a large group.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:14b – Awkward Situation”When I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel …
Summary: If you are building a road, you need a plan. If the plans are not followed, the road might not work.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:14a – The Inspector’s Dog”… because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group.
Summary: There is a thing called “group think” that occurs when people stop thinking for themselves and just go along to get along with the group. This isn’t a problem unless the group is thinking wrongly.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:12b – Group Think”For before certain men came from James, he [Peter] used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles …
Summary: In this passage, Paul tells the story about a time when Peter came to visit his ministry in Antioch.
Continue reading “Galatians 2:12a – Flashback”