Episode 55 - Galatians - Pt, 2

Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hi, and welcome to the unveiling. I'm Tim, one of the hosts, and along with Andrey and Mark, we are three guys discussing the one true gospel. We hope you're encouraged by this episode. Let's dive right in. Speaker 1 00:00:24 Hello and welcome or welcome back to the unveiling. We are all here, and we're certainly glad you are as well. This is episode 55. Last week we started going through the book of Galatians in the New Testament, a letter from Paul to the churches of Galatia churches, which he helped start. We are gonna pick up from where we left off last week. So we are gonna start our reading today in Galatians chapter two at verse 11, and we're just gonna go read some and talk about it as we go. So if you're ready, guys, I'm gonna dive right in. One quick note, this is Paul writing, so it's in his voice. He's talking, you know, he's speaking and Sifi, uh, that he refers to, uh, I think we mentioned it last week. Sifi is Peter, the Apostle Peter, so that there's no confusion. So starting in verse 11 of chapter two, when Sifa came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned for before certain men came from James, he used to eat with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles because he was afraid of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hypocrisy, even Barnabas was led astray. I think that's a good stop for the moment. Yes, sure. Yes, I think it is. So, Ajay, Speaker 2 00:01:56 You know, one of the things here is right, you know, I just noticed, uh, Peter was the one, if you look at the New Testament Act two, Peter was the one who actually, the first author to preach the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit. Uh, he boley talked to not only Jew, Leah, all the Jews, right? You know, he said, he pointed finger at them and said, you people who killed the author of Life, God raised him up from the dead. And he was so bold. And again, you know, even when he was imprisoned, he was bold. In Acts chapter three also, he goes and, uh, boldly proclaims a gospel. And now when it comes to actually association of the Jews, you know, uh, he's afraid of them, of the peer pressure or, you know, societal pressure, even though he knew the truth, he was, uh, not willing to live by it. Speaker 2 00:02:45 You know, before somebody from James came, he was, uh, eating with Gentiles. And, um, and then when they came, he pulled back, right? So just keeping up with the societal pressure. And I think it happens even now, right? You, you know, we belong to a certain denomination. Oh, Baptist won't do this. Pentecostals won't do that. Oh, for Baptist, you know, speaking in tongues and abomination, right? So I think we might, even though personally we might believe in something, but, uh, we might not outwardly, you know, stand by it. But I think here is the case, right? You know, there are some secondary things that it's okay if you believe or not believe, but when it comes to a core gospel, we need, we need to stand for it. You know, there are no two ways about it. You know, either you're justified by faith alone or you're justified by faith plus something. Speaker 2 00:03:31 So I think one of the observations is, Peter, even though he was so bold before here, he's afraid. So this does not mean, you know, sometimes, you know, we may be boldly proclaiming the gospel, but in other cases we might be a chicken <laugh>. So it also shows that, you know, every time we save, we do the work of the Lord. You know, we do it in the power of the Holy Spirit. If we do it in the flesh, you know, it's not going to work. So, and again, I think the good thing is it's okay. Sometimes we get scared, sometimes we are bold, you know, as the Lord enables we do it. And sometimes, you know, we back off it's okay to, you know, nothing to condemn ourselves. Speaker 1 00:04:09 So, AJ let me ask you one question about what you just said. You said, if we preach out of our own flesh, it's ineffective. I would say that preaching in the spirit is so much more effective as to almost make it ineffective as doing it ourselves. But I would also say that the Lord can speak through a deja bone of an ass, or me, uh, I I think it can still be somewhat effective, but you're certainly not gonna get the results that come from the power of the Holy Spirit. Speaker 2 00:04:39 Yeah. I'm sorry, Tim. I think if I said effective, but I was just referring to the, his state of mind. I think here he is scared. In other cases he was bold. But I think, like we always say, you know, the gospel is the gospel, you know, the power is within the gospel itself. As long as we are preaching the truth, I think, you know, it'll go, the Bible says, you know, the word of God will not, uh, return empty. It's not so much of the, on the side of the speaker, but it's more on the side of the receiver. If you preach the pure gospel and if someone is willing to listen or receive it by faith, it'll do its work regardless of the preacher. Speaker 3 00:05:16 We've talked about that many times, and the way we usually put it is the powers not on the messenger. It's in the message, right? So whether you're a new believer, brand new believer, or whether you've been walking with the Lord for 50, 60 years, when you bring the gospel of grace, the, the message of the cross, the spirit is in that you, you can't do anything to get it out of there, right? You don't have to have a theology degree, a seminary degree. You could be a brand new cri Christian, but when you preach Jesus Christ and him crucified the message of God's grace, there, there was, there is a demonstration of the spirit's power in that message. Speaker 2 00:05:55 Yeah. So in fact, I would, uh, sorry, uh, go ahead and add this. You know, I think in many cases, brand new believers are the ones who preach the poor pure gospel, you know, after they join the church and they feel like, oh, now I'm a mature believer, you know, they start adding to the gospel Yeah. And corrupting the gospel. So Speaker 3 00:06:13 That's a great point in Speaker 2 00:06:14 Case, yeah, regardless of how much mature you are, but if you cut up the message, you're stripping it off the power. Speaker 3 00:06:21 Ajay, I wanted to just, um, get a little specific here on the first paragraph that Tim just, just, uh, read. And that is that Paul and Peter both were Jews who had become Christians. And it says here that when the Judi, but, but they were pure gospel Jewish Christians, the Judaizers who came in believed that you were saved by faith in Christ and keeping the mosaic law. So when they came in, that's when Peter separated himself from the Gentiles. And here it says, the other Jews joined him in his hypocrisy, so that by their hobo hypocrisy, even Barnabas was led as straight. Now, these other Jews that joined him were also Jewish Christians that were Christians in the one true gospel. They weren't Judaizers. So the Judaizers came in and, and, and persuaded, well, I don't wanna say persuade, but their very presence there caused Peter and the other Jewish Christians with him. Speaker 3 00:07:24 And even Barnabas, who's named means encourager, even Barnabas was led astray by this. So I just wanted to point that out, um, just so there's no, you know, cuz they're going back and forth between Peter and James and J and, and Paul and using the term Jew. So, um, these, these are Jewish Christians that were led astray. And then the second thing I wanted to add, you, you pointed at a great point that even Peter, Peter was the one pri first led astray, worried and afraid when the Jewish judaizing Christians came in. And you had pointed out, this is Peter, he was the first one after Christ was resurrected, had died, resurrected and ascended on the day of Pentecost who went out and preached the gospel, not only was he the first one to go out and preach the gospel, he was the first one that had the true revelation that this gospel was for the Gentiles as well. Speaker 3 00:08:22 When he was on the roof of Simon the Tanner, he had a vision of God letting down like a giant sheet that had all kind of animals in it, birds and reptiles and things. And he was very hungry. And God said to him, Peter, kill and eat. And a lot of these things according to the Jewish law, were unlawful and unclean for a Jew. And, and, and Peter said, N no, Lord, I can't do that. I've never put an unclean thing in my mouth. And beside making a statement about the law and that we're not, not under the law anymore, but under grace, he said, don't call anything unclean that I've made clean. So to me, it's even still a little surprising Peter, who had that revelation that don't call these gentiles unclean, I've made them clean that he forgot that when the Jews came, the jus came in and he pulled back from 'em. Speaker 3 00:09:18 And because these Jews thought that they were less clean than the ones that were adding the mosaic law to faith in Christ, he pulled back having forgot that. And the thing I love about this is Paul's not opposing him just for the sake of going to war over this. He's doing it for Peter's own good, for the good of all the Jewish believers that were with him in Galatia there and also for us, because he says he opposed Peter that the gospel might be preserved for us. And so this was not a bad thing here. This was one believer coming up alongside another believer, and for the sake of the gospel and for individuals was setting him straight. Yeah. And I just thought that was like a really good example for us, not only what to do, but how we do that in love and respect and with the right motives behind it. Speaker 2 00:10:12 Yeah. I think to that point, uh, mark, I think it gives us both comfort and courage to stick to the one true gospel. Right? You know, sometimes we hear from big, big preachers from the pulpit, you know, even if they don't preach the pure gospel, we don't have to be afraid. Right. You know, we just like Paul, it, you know, we can boldly say, you know, you are not in preaching the true gospel. And uh, and it clearly shows, right, it is very important for Paul, at least, it's very important to preserve the purity of the gospel. And he did not back off from opposing, even Peter, obviously at that time, Peter was one of the top guys among the Jewish believers, but still he did not, uh, back off from opposing him. Speaker 3 00:10:55 And this is Peter. This is not just your average everyday Christian, right? This is one of the original 12 disciples apostles. He was the one that gave the statement that Christ built his church on, that he's the son of living God. And it just, it's, it's kind of encouraging because if he's able to at times speak and think and act and believe in a way that's not in aligned with the truth of the gospel, how much more can we fall to that? And that that's really one of the reasons the unveiling exists, is for us all to keep purifying our knowledge and understanding of the gospel until we do speak and act and believe that I want that to be my default setting. You know, now I'm still in the phase where at times I have to correct myself against the word and what the true gospel is. And sometimes even my wife or my kids or AJ or or Tim will correct me and say, Hey, that's old covenant thinking. You know, so this is just a great encouragement. Speaker 1 00:11:57 So picking back up at verse 14, when I saw that they were not acting in line with the truth of the gospel, I said to see if this's in front of them all, you are a Jew, yet you live like a Gentile and not like a Jew. How is it then that you force Gentiles to follow Jewish customs? We who are Jews by birth and not sinful gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we too have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. Because by the works of the law, no one will be justified. Now that, that verse 16 that ends with by the works of the law, no one will be justified, is one of my main proof texts. That the law can't buy you anything. It can't give you righteousness. You can't gain righteousness. There's another one coming up, uh, I believe early in the next chapter that that really is very similar. But the, the salvation and sanctification of Christians is done by faith, not by works, not by the law, not by action and activity, but by faith. Abraham was counted as being righteous because of his faith, not because of his works. Speaker 2 00:13:27 Yeah. I think here, you know, if you look at the progression, right? Peter was a Jew and then after he heard the gospel, he realized, oh my God, I don't need to really keep any of these, uh, Jewish traditions or customs in order to be a Christian. So he basically let go of that, right? You know, he thought before they were mixed with, uh, Gentiles, I think they would not eat pork and things like that. But now he found a newfound freedom that, you know, he started mixing with gentiles, he started mixing with gentile believers. I do not believe here, I think the context is not so much of, you know, breaking the 10 commandments, but here the context is just associating yourself with, uh, gentiles and non-Jews. So he was a Jew and then he realized that, okay, my Jewishness will not save me. Speaker 2 00:14:12 I'm only saved by faith in our largest Christ, like Tim said, and then I don't have to keep all the customs of the Jews to be a Christian. And then he became a Christian. But now he is going back and a adding the Jewish law to the gospel. You know, that's what Paul is saying here. If you being a Jew, you're living like a Gentile, then why are you forcing the Gentiles to become like a Jew? You know? It doesn't make any sense at all. You know, I think that is a logical argument. Uh, Paul is making, I have one more point, but I will, uh, let you guys chime in here. Speaker 1 00:14:43 Go ahead, mark. Speaker 3 00:14:45 Well, Haj just said what I was gonna say. I thought he was gonna comment on <laugh> on 16 forward. And that is now Paul Peter was not teaching these believers in Galatia that you have to add the law cuz he didn't believe that. But by the fact that when the Judaizers came in, he sided with them and drew back. He was indirectly saying, okay, these people are telling you you need to add the law and I'm drawing away from you and siding with them. That's what Paul is talking to. He's indirectly by his actions showing to the Gentiles, Hey, even though I've been hanging out with you, these people think you have to add the law on circumcision. Now I'm going back with them. So that's what he's talking about. Peter didn't come out and say to the Gentiles there, Hey, you need to all be circumcised. But by his actions and pulling back from them and going over with the Judaizers, that's what he's basically saying. Now, Speaker 1 00:15:48 The Judaizers were about more than just circumcision. Speaker 3 00:15:53 Yeah. The Speaker 1 00:15:54 The fact is, and we've said this before, uh, so hope, pardon me for belaboring the point, the 10 Commandments are the 10 commandments, but there's 613 laws. There are also, uh, feasts and traditions and things that had to all be observed and met for you to be considered, uh, complying with the law. And I don't know about you guys, uh, but I'll be the first to admit, 10 commandments are more than hard enough for me, <laugh> most days. But if you're gonna add all these others, I mean, there's restrictions on what you can eat, what you can wear, who you can hang out with. It's the list is goes on and on and on. And there may be more now, uh, in the, uh, modern Jewish tradition. I'm just not up to speed on that. Speaker 3 00:16:42 I think that's good. A, a good point about circumcision. However, I'd like to add that circumcision was Jewish. It was the sign that we are god's covenant people, the chosen people. And so, even though it was only one of many things and that that tended to be, uh, one of the focuses that the judaizers are trying to add to the Gentiles, it wasn't the only one, but it's such a key one. It's almost like the key to the gateway to the old covenant. When a boy was born on the eighth day, he was circumcised and that set him out on his path of fulfilling the law. It was the really, the first law you can fulfill. And it's really more his parents than him. Cuz when you're eight days, you can't decide one way or another if you wanna be circumcised. Otherwise nobody would be circumcised. <laugh> <laugh>. Speaker 1 00:17:34 That's, I'm true to that Speaker 3 00:17:37 <laugh>, Speaker 2 00:17:37 You know, we talked about it, right? You know, Paul talked, uh, about the perversion of the gospel, but he has not yet defined what the gospel is. So here he is clearly defining it and he says three times the same thing. It's interesting, I am reading in a new King James version, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, but by the fur, by the works of the law. No flesh shall be justified. The same thing in one sentence he repeated three times and, uh, at the starting, right? You know, the first thing about the being saved is no, this whole process of being saved is the knowledge. What should we know? Speaker 2 00:18:25 Right? We need to know that I manage justified our made righteous not by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. And what is action on our side after knowing that we are justified, not by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. The action on our side is even we have believed in Christ Jesus. You know, that is a part that saves us. That's it. As simple as that, first comes a knowledge. Hey, my words cannot save me. All my dead works cannot save me no matter what I do. I cannot be saved. I can only be justified before God by faith in our lords Christ. And after knowing that we are to put our faith in lords Christ and putting our faith is basically simply believing in the Lords Christ. And when we do that, what is a result after that? Speaker 2 00:19:10 The result is here, that after believing, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law. And then he says, for the works of the law, no flesh shall be justified. So this is a gospel, uh, uh, in its, uh, pures form that, uh, Paul is, uh, presenting again. Right? You know, so anything that perverts this, right? Anything that says, you know, believe in Christ is not enough, that's not the gospel. So that's a whole point. And one other thing I noticed here is, right, it's, it's not that these Peter or other people are denying the gospel, right? They're not saying, okay, just throw out the gospel, throw out Lord Jesus Christ, let's go back to the law. They're not saying that they are accepting the gospel, but they're adding works to the gospel, right? They're adding the Jewish customs and circumcision primarily to the gospel. Speaker 2 00:20:02 But look at that God, Paul is saying, if you do that, you are trying to be justified by the law. He doesn't say you're trying to be justified by a mixed gospel. You're not. You're trying to be justified by faith in Christ and the law. He's simply saying, if you even add one additional condition to the gospel, then you're basically trying to be justified by the whole law. That's what he says, right? You know, if you go back to one thing in the law, you're basically put yourself under the law and you need to be justified by the law. And basically you need to keep the whole law, all the 10 commandments, all the 600 whatnot. And then at that point you're basically rejecting the work of Christ and they're going back fully to the law. I think people are not realizing that preaching the mixed gospel is same as preaching the entire law and telling them you have to be justified by the works of the law. Speaker 3 00:20:53 There's a lot of scripture that supports what you just said, aj. And as we get into Galatians three, Paul's going to say in those words that if you try to do one part of the law, you're obligated to fulfill the entire law. Yeah. And James from the other side said, if you break one part of the law, you've broken all of it. Yeah. So key, key point there. Speaker 2 00:21:15 Yeah. Still I think how ignorant people are, right? Simply, you know, without knowledge carelessly adding conditions to the gospel. I mean, when Paul took it so seriously to go against Peter himself, nowadays, you know, we are very, uh, I think in a careless foolish manner, we are adding conditions and works to the gospel. And we think that's okay. And we think that is holiness. Speaker 1 00:21:39 I'm gonna move forward, uh, a couple more verses starting at verse 17. But if in seeking to be justified in Christ, we Jews find ourselves also amongst the sinners, doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? Absolutely not. Uh, if I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. Speaker 3 00:22:01 So up until about two days ago in my life, I not only didn't understand those two sentences, I had them 180 degrees backwards. So as I did some re uh, some research or read a few commentaries, uh, especially, uh, Matthew Henry's, and now I completely see it, see it, what Paul is saying here is that, uh, in seeking to be justified in Christ, in other words, he had lived his whole life trying to be justified by the law. Now he's seeking to be justified in Christ. He says, as I do that, now I'm finding myself among the sinners, the Gentiles. That's what Jews called them. You know, when you, when he moved out from under the law being in Christ, the Jews would've considered him a sinner. And among the numbers of the Gentile sinners, he says, doesn't that mean that Christ promotes sin? And Paul says, absolutely not. Speaker 3 00:23:00 Now, here's the key line. He says, if I rebuild what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. I always thought this meant that if he's, if he used grace to start sinning, then he would be a lawbreaker. But it makes sense. Now, what is it that he's gone from? He's gone from the law to faith. If he rebuilds that law in his life, then that would make him a law breaker because nobody can keep the law. And that's what ma what Matthew Henry said, he's, and, and so the Jews, he's, he's giving you a rhetorical argument that the Jews might have used against him. That, hey, you've moved to, to faith. Now that makes you a lawbreaker. Cuz now you're with the gentile sinners because they didn't believe that you were justified by faith alone. And Paul is saying, absolutely not just the opposite. If I move back and add the law and put myself under it, that's what makes me a sinner and a lawbreaker. Now I'm clean, I'm pure, I am completely justified. I am the righteousness of God. And he wasn't gonna be persuaded by them as Peter and some of the other Jews were momentarily to go back under the law. Speaker 2 00:24:10 Yeah, that's an awesome point. Uh, mark, you know, here, in fact, you know, as you just said, you know, if you commit one sin in your entire life, you become a law breaker. So after being saved, I mean to begin with, we went to Christ because we realized that we are sinners. We broke the law, and uh, we need a savior and we need someone who can redeem us from the law. So after believing in Christ, if you go back to the same law, you are same since, even if you don't commit any nuisance, the previous sin you committed there still there under the law. So you will instantly become a law breaker. So even if you ever committed one sin in your life, and then you got get saved, and then you go back to the law that one si one sin still remains under the law and you become a law breaker. And becoming a law breaker is not only just it's, uh, something saying, oh yeah, now you're a law breaker. But the moment you go back under the law, you also come under the punishment and the condemnation and the curse of the law. So that is also important. And if you go back to the law again, you know, you will go back under all the, uh, curses of the law. So it's, uh, extremely important that, you know, you don't go back to the law once you come to saving faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Speaker 3 00:25:25 Yeah, this is Paul admonishing us. I love the word admonishment because it's not, it's, he's giving us advice here. Really important advice very strongly that if you're a believer who's come to Christ in faith, stay there. Don't start adding a law back in because now that makes you a lawbreaker, Christ will be of little effect to you. You've fallen away from grace. He's gonna say once we move ahead. I think that's in Galatians five. So that's a really good admonishment to us to really that it, that it's not just, oh, it's okay to add a little bit of works. What's the harm? The harm is, you're making yourself a law breaker. Speaker 2 00:26:08 Yep. Speaker 1 00:26:10 Yep. Very good. Very good. So let's pick up at verse 19 and work through the end of the chapter here. For through the law, I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in, the body, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside the grace of God for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. And that last verse, there is, uh, another great summation of the gospel message in a line. You know, I do not have set aside the grace of God for righteousness could be ga if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. And that's the truth. Speaker 2 00:27:00 Yeah, yeah. Okay. Um, this one is so packed, you know, so rich with the truth. It's, it's awesome. There are so many things here and, um, this is one passage I always go back to in my personal, uh, life. So most people, you know, this passage they read from verse 20, I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I live. But, uh, actually it is connected to the previous, uh, two verses and more closely connected to the verse 19. For through the law, I died to the law. So that I at live for God, I have been crucified with Christ. I would kind of break it like that because what happened was the net effect of being crucified with Christ. The first thing you want to understand is that you die to the law. People don't understand that, you know, being crucifixion with Christ, people immediately don't connect the dots to understand that being crucified with Christ means we die to the law. Speaker 2 00:27:58 They think, you know, being crucified with Christ is, you know, somehow we have to, um, die to sin in our own strength. Yeah, I've been crucified with Christ. Okay, now I've been crucified to sin. Now I have to, uh, really live a sinless life. You know, but here the, based on the context, the whole context is about the law, right? You know, if I rebuild the law, what I destroyed, then I really would be a lawbreaker. But how was it destroyed? In verse 18, he's saying that the law was destroyed, but how was it destroyed? That's what the verse 19 is saying. For I, through the law died to the law so that I at leave forgot. So law says the soul, that sin much died. And then yes, we died in Lord Jesus. Christians instead of us Lord Jesus died. But in him, we also died. Speaker 2 00:28:42 So let's say if you, um, uh, criminal is sentenced to death punishment, and then he's executed, he's no longer under this law system, he's gone. The law cannot go back, uh, go after an executed criminal and then try to, uh, prosecute him again. It's over. It's done. So similarly, you know, we died in Christ to the law that said that we must die. And then I've been crucified with Christ. And it is no longer. So when this happens, right? When we die to the law for us to live this life of me not living no longer I but Christ living in me, in order to live that life, in order to realize that life we need to understand we are, we die to the law. We are no longer under the law. And that's when you know Christ lives in us. And the second thing we see is the life. Speaker 2 00:29:30 I live in this body. I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. So our part is to live by faith in Son of God who loved us. When we do that, Christ lives his life in us. We don't have to again worry about, you know, bringing Christ from heaven to bringing to us to live in us. All we do is we put our faith in the son of God who loved us and who gave himself for us again. You know, we set our eyes on the cross. You know, that's where he died for us. When we set our eyes on the cross and we rushed in his love for us Christ lives. You know, it's, it's really cool. Speaker 3 00:30:06 Yeah, that's awesome. Can I, I just want to add to your point, AJ and, uh, what we had talked about before about rebuilding, if I rebuild what I re uh, destroyed, that I would be a lawbreaker. One of our main goals from the beginning on the unveiling and that we're absolutely adamant about is that salvation and San sanctification. Jesus said, the righteous will live by faith from first to last. There's no room in there. And so many people think that by adding some religious activity or some works or effort or some rituals, um, that they're actually doing something good and honoring God because, hey, look at me. I'm working hard man. And they actually believe that's part of the gospel. They believe it's part of Christianity, but that's not what scripture says. And if you've listened to the unveiling at all, you'll know we just give proof after proof what we don't. Speaker 3 00:31:08 But the apostles and scripture do, and the Spirit does that when you try to add, you're actually subtracting, you're detracting, you're tainting, polluting and perverting the perfect gospel of God's grace shown in the cross for us. And what I love about Galatians one that I didn't mention in one six, when, when the Galatians started doing this very thing, trying to add works back in, Paul said, I'm astonished that you were so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ. When we start adding our works to the gospel, we're actually deserting Christ. It's a desertion. We're deserting God. Paul says, and you're, you're turning to a different gospel, which is no gospel at all. Yeah. So it's just a key point there that we'd real, that people would realize it's really an important thing not to be adding works back in. And yet as clear as scripture tells that us, that us that that is, it's not easy to do because if we also mentioned so many times that's in our D n a, I mean, we're grown up in our society in a system that everything you do in every area is about merit. It's about you work hard and you receive. This is counterintuitive, but that's a, it's a paradox. It's not a contradiction, it's a paradox. Only because down here in the earthly realms, we've got it all wrong. Speaker 2 00:32:39 Yeah, I'd like to touch on 21 as well. Uh, this is also a key verse. Uh, I think in I, it says, I do not set aside. And, uh, I like K J V as well. It says, I do not frustrate the grace of God for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. So people talk about grace of God and they give lip service. But I wonder how many of them are constantly frustrating and setting aside the grace of God and the way to frustrate the grace, grace of God. It's clearly defined here, right? If you try to attain your righteousness by the law, if you try to do something again in order to justify yourself before God and thereby get his blessings or life or anything from God, you are basically frustrating the grace of God. And not only that, then you are making Christ death in vain for you. Speaker 2 00:33:30 So in Hebrews it says, uh, towards the end of, uh, chapter 10, I think these people are crucified to Christ themselves are fresh again. I think some people think, uh oh, if you keep on sin, you know you're crucifying Christ to yourself again and again. But that's not the point. If you go back under the law, you know, Christ death becomes vain. That means Christ is dead to you again. You know, his death is of no value to you. So it is pretty serious business, you know, going back under the law. Don't do that. Don't do that at all. Speaker 1 00:33:59 I just wanted to ask a question. Ij, are you saying that if I'm a Christian and that I'm wholly, you know, rightly saved, and then I go back and say, I'm gonna start trying to live by these rules, these laws, and I break one, I am condemned again, which means Jesus has to go back to the cross and die for me again. Is that kind of what it's saying? Speaker 2 00:34:22 Well, I think I would say for, I would say that applies more to people who rejected Christ to begin with and is finished work and they're trying to justify themselves by the works of the law. Uh, Christ is of no use for them, right, because they're not taking advantage of the death of Christ. But for believers, I think, you know, if they go back under the law, obviously they'll not lose their salvation or they don't cease to become the children of God, but they cease to be living by grace. You know, whatever we can receive, all the inheritance that we have in Christ is only by grace through faith. So the inheritance that Christ has prepared for us, we cannot receive and enjoy it by the works of the law. So we have to set aside the works of the law and then go back to living by faith in order to receive and enjoy the inheritance and the finished work of Lord Jesus Christed. So even as a Christian, we might go back and live in this dark times where, you know, we are living like an believer where we are not enjoying Christ at all, or we are not taking advantage of the benefits of Christ at all. Because suddenly we started going back to the law, to, uh, to, to qualify ourselves to get what Christ did for us. Speaker 3 00:35:33 Can I put my 2 cents in on there, Tim? All right. I wanna be, for the sake of all honesty, I'm gonna be honest. All right. The Apostle Paul, and even in these scriptures we're reading now in Galatians in many other places, he, he says things that could be interpreted as cr when he says that if you go back under the law, you're now a law breaker. And Christ is of no value to you, that you've fallen away from grace that could be interpreted, that you lose your salvation, if not for the fact that Paul taught over and over and over again that you can't lose your salvation. But one thing I would say is that we know for sure putting yourself back under the law and adding works to the pure gospel of Jesus Christ. It's a bad thing. <laugh>, don't do it. You know, I I'm reminded of Nike's just do it slogan this is just don't do it all right? That's the, Speaker 2 00:36:35 You know, that's believe, just Speaker 3 00:36:36 Trusting Christ alone, rest in him. Speaker 2 00:36:38 Yeah, I think on that point Mark, I'd also had, you know, here the context is justification. So justification by faith is salvation. So I think he might also be referring to people who are not saved yet. And, uh, instead of preaching, preaching the pure gospel to them, now these, um, uh, Judas have come and they're preaching a mixed version of the gospel, you know, which I'm also very much against it even today, I think in, in how many evangelical, uh, meetings we really hear the pure gospel. I think, at least for me, when I was trying to, uh, be save, get saved, <laugh>, I always heard, right? You know, you go there, there's a repent and believe and form repent is always, oh, you have to stop sin. And I could, there's no way I could stop Sinn. So I don't know, maybe others could, but others couldn't. <laugh>. Uh, so repentant believe is not the gospel for me. I can never be saved by the gospel. That's like adding works to the gospel. So it has to be simply believed. That's it. Speaker 1 00:37:35 Mark. Mark, you are the expert on repent. What does repent truly Speaker 3 00:37:40 Mean? Well, this one just if anything gets in my cra and twist <laugh>, it's the misuse of the word repent, which I know we've talked about many times, but I think it's worth repeating. Um, and that's repent has got very little to do with sin. And that the board is, the Greek word used in the Bible is mea, which literally means rethink. And this is something that's probably gonna surprise a lot of you listening. And one of the great things about the day we live in now is we have computer concordances. We can look up every single word or theme or scripture and find everywhere in the Bible. It, it uses that word. I did an exhaustive search of the New Testament of the word repent, repent, repentance, repenting every possible form of that. And it is never, ever used where it says, repent of your sin, repent of sin. Speaker 3 00:38:40 And that's the calling card of most preachers nowadays, nowadays, repent of your sin in turn to Christ. No, it never says that. What it says over and over again is repent and turn for the forgiveness of sins. You rethink the fact that you are a sinner and that you can't fulfill the law and do it well enough yourself. You rethink the fact that you don't need a savior and that you do need a savior. And you turn to Christ. Peter, on that first day in the streets of Jerusalem on Pentecost preaching, he said, repent and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out. He didn't say, repent, wipe out your sins so that you can turn to God. No, now it doesn't say that it's completely wrong and it makes what the message is giving is before you can come to Christ, you need to clean up your act. You need to clean the sin out of your life. Well, if you could do that, you wouldn't need Christ at all because you just get rid of the sin of your life and now you're righteous by the law. No, it does. It makes no sense. It's illogical and how it ever crept in to the gospel that the church preaches. And I'm sure maybe I don't even know it, but I'm sure it's been opposed throughout the centuries. I know the apostle Paul opposed that kind of thinking. Speaker 2 00:40:04 You know, that is like, uh, uh, saying, you know, before you get in the shower, you need to clean yourself Speaker 3 00:40:11 <laugh>. Yeah. Use some, use some, uh, wipes, some, what do they call those Doty wipes and clean your whole body. Then go take a shower. Speaker 1 00:40:18 All right guys, I don't want to be the pushy guy, but I'm the pushy guy. We're pretty far into it time wise, and I think that we've gone through a lot of meat in this particular section. Wanted to give you guys a chance to reflect on it before we ended the episode for today. So Mark, would you like to start? Speaker 3 00:40:38 Sure, I will. And, um, just to do this one, and I, I agree with you Tim, very meaty, it's the meat, it's to the core. It's to the core of the subject. Um, and just to def define the law one more time for somebody who has not listened to maybe a, a a first time listener, uh, to this podcast. And that is when we say the, when Paul's talking about the law, many times he's talking about the mosaic law, which was given by God through Moses or the Deutero Domical law or the Levitical law, which were also given by God to the nation of Israel. But then they added their own rabbinical laws and traditions and rituals and ceremonies and festivals. When we talk about it in modern times, we're talking about that same kind of thing, but it's a system of earning deserving meriting by your own effort, by your performance in rules and regulations, rituals, religious activity, behavior modification. Speaker 3 00:41:44 Now Paul uses a lot of those terms in scripture. So when he talks about being either law, he's not just ref referring to to, to Judaic law cuz he talks about rules and regulations. Don't touch, don't taste, don't handle this. He's talking about the same kind of things we do now, we know many people won't eat meat on a Friday or certain days are holier than others and you know, that kind of thing. So just to be clear and what we call that as a hamster wheel, when you add that to the, if you're under that by itself or added to the gospel, it's a hamster wheel. And the harder you work, you still get nowhere. It's a perversion, a detraction of a subtraction and a pollution of the gospel and a desertion of the one who calls you to live in the grace of Christ, which is that one true gospel. So that's just, I wanna, wanted to mention that and then also just to kind of acknowledge that, uh, we need each other to ever break into the complete freedom as the children of God were called to because it's in our d n a iron sharpens iron doesn't mean that I get in Tim's face about sinning or AJ's face about sinning. It means I get in their face about trying to do things under their own effort and not resting and trusting in the perfect gospel. Speaker 1 00:43:04 Amen. Thank you very much Mark aj. Speaker 2 00:43:07 Yeah, so I want to summarize and also, uh, talk about a practical application here. Uh, by way of summary, you know, when we put our faith in Lord Jesus Christ, we were crucified with Lord Jesus Christ and we were crucified. You know, we were not only crucified to the old man and our flesh, but I think the primary crucifixion that, uh, sets us free is we died to the law. We are no longer under the law. So for a believer, we are no business with the law, not even as a moral guide, not even as anything because you know, we have much higher moral, which is loving one another as Christ louder us that is higher than the 10 Commandments. So we really don't even need the law as a moral guide because our logic is scratched already. Give the commandment love one another even as I loved you. Speaker 2 00:43:56 That's good enough. So don't go back to the law. So I think, uh, the question is, you know, after believers, how do we know we are going back to the law? You know, I'm actually, I catch myself doing this a lot, is when you feel condemned and when you're constantly beating up yourself and you never can let go of the mistake you did and you're constantly going over and over in your mind about something you did, and you keep on beating yourself up, you are still living under the law. So as we grow in grace and stop living under the law, I think that is a lit must test, right? Even when we fall, when we sin, when we do something wrong, immediately we say, I'm the righteousness of God in Christ. And don't beat yourself up. You know, the root cause of beating ourself up is the self-righteousness. We are still thinking I should have done better instead of accepting that, you know, there's nothing good in me. So I myself, I think I go through this cycle, a lot of, uh, self condemnation, beating myself up. But, uh, I think that is, uh, indication that you're still, even though you know grace, even though you're trusted in the logic Christ, but uh, when it comes to practical application, you're still going back under the law. So, so when you do sin, when you fall, don't beat yourself up. Just claim the righteousness and then move on. Speaker 1 00:45:14 Amen. Thank you, Ajay. I think that I'm just going to add a little bit here myself and say that of this whole chapter of verse 21 still sticks out to me as being some of the core tenets of what I now believe and why I believe it. Uh, when it says, I do not set aside the grace of God for a righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing. Well, Christ died for me. I'm only a little above nothing. But Christ died for me. And the reason he died is so that I didn't have to justify myself anymore cuz Jesus came and is my justification now and is my salvation. And that is just like I said, one of the core tenets of this belief in the grace of God and why I follow it. And I will say that in so many years in church, I don't think I ever saw this particular verse taught and to find it, so to speak, later in life, uh, it was a revelation. Speaker 1 00:46:17 And then in fact, there's even more in the next chapter, which I think we're going to continue this next week. So join us if you'd like to move forward in Galatians with us. Uh, and, um, there's more in this next chapter where, again, I don't believe I've ever heard it preached in church because I think I would've had a completely different understanding of Christianity. And just remember that the law is has no power to help you keep it. It it wasn't given to go to show us a way to be righteous. It was given to show us that we couldn't be righteous. And then Jesus doubled down on that in his ministry on earth by every, you know, all the things where he said, you've heard it said, for instance, uh, you've heard it said, don't, uh, you know, don't have relations with your neighbor's wife. Speaker 1 00:47:06 I say, if you ever looked at another woman and thought about it in your heart, you've already committed that sin. Uh, so the law isn't our friend, it isn't our guide, it isn't our comforter <laugh>. That's what Jesus and the Holy Spirit came to do. Guys, this has been another great discussion. I appreciate your time tonight. I'm already looking forward to next week. And again, I think it's gonna be be we're gonna start off in the bit, the beginning of Galatians three and kind of keep going through like we've been doing the last two. And thank you everybody for coming. We hope you've been edified lifted up and encouraged, and we'll talk to you again the next time. Speaker 1 00:47:47 Tim, again, thanks for listening today. We hope you were blessed by today's message. If so, we encourage you to subscribe and share our podcast with your friends and family. Our entire catalog of episodes can be found on our website at www.theunveiledgospel.com. Or you can listen and subscribe on most popular podcast apps. If you have any feedback or questions, you can send us an email to the unveiled gospel yahoo.com. You can reach out to us on our Facebook page, the Unveiling Podcast, or you can leave a question or comment on our listener line at 3 5 2 3 9 8 0 0 8 9. Maybe you'll hear yourself on a future episode. That's it for today. As always, God bless and we will talk to you the next time.