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It is commonly preached that God withdraws from us when we do wrong and draws closer as we do better. That is just another way of saying that He gives us what we deserve.
Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians are three short but rich books among the letters of Paul in the New Testament. Because of their brevity, their contribution to . Paul wrote the letter to the Galatians to refute a belief that restricted God's grace alone to those who followed Jewish ritualistic law. In the letter to the Ephesians.
Of course, none of us really deserve anything from the Lord, so there must be a little bit of grace mixed with our performance to make this palatable to the masses. We are either acceptable to God based on what we do or on what our Lord Jesus Christ did for us — not a combination of the two. It has to be one way or the other. The deadliest weapon against the true Gospel is not a total denial of its claims but an addition of other terms or conditions to the only thing that Jesus demanded: Faith in Jesus plus nothing equals total victory.
Faith in Jesus plus anything else equals failure. They were also told that they needed to live holy, according to the Jewish standard of holiness, or they would be lost. Paul attacked that doctrine with a vengeance. The book of Galatians is one of the hardest hitting books in the Bible. He tells it like it is, in almost brutal terms. He considered this truth of the grace of God to be the heart and soul of the Gospel; therefore, any compromising on this issue was unacceptable.
There is no true salvation apart from absolute faith in Christ alone. The book of Ephesians is a much gentler letter, but it proclaims the same great truths. Paul starts this letter with a prayer for the Ephesians, that they would receive wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of what they have in Christ.
Home Questions Tags Users Unanswered. Again, we must turn to Philippians 2: If others do the same, then our needs will be met, although there is no guarantee that they will do so. They provide practical understanding as to how God can love us unconditionally and still be just. Vinnie rated it it was amazing Oct 29,
We have already been given everything in Christ. Why should we try and work for something that we already have? In Ephesians, Paul reveals that we are saved by grace through faith and not of ourselves. He also reveals that experiencing the love of God will fill us completely with all the fullness of God. The unconditional love of God is the key.
Actions are a byproduct of love, not the other way around. He promoted a relationship with the Lord independent of our worthiness. Once an individual comes into relationship with the Lord by faith alone, it becomes the nature of that person to live holy as love becomes the motivator. In the book of Ephesians, Paul exhorts the Ephesians to live holy, but from the positive motivation of love instead of the negative motivation of punishment that is so common today.
The book of Philippians gives tremendous insight into the personal life of the Apostle Paul. He praised God for their partnership in the Gospel, and he bared his heart to them.
He revealed that he was not only willing to die for the sake of Christ, but he was actually looking forward to doing so. He was actually in a struggle as to whether he should stay in this world so he could preach the Gospel or just go on to be with the Lord, which he would much rather do. How could Paul say such things? How can a person reach a point to where their own life is not the most important thing to them?
Paul gives the answers to these questions to his friends in Philippi. He learned how to be content.
He chose to be the way he was. The key was that he had died. Paul was dead to himself and alive to God. How did this happen? It was through the love of God. Living Stream Ministry retains full copyright on all these materials and hopes that our visitors will respect this. Downloading this material, even for personal use, is prohibited. Your IP address is Simply enter a word or phrase. Common words, such as "and", "is", and "the", also known as noise words , are bypassed in a search. Living Stream Ministry publishes the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, providing the authoritative and definitive collections of treasures from these two servants of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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