Friday, September 6, 2013

Galatians 3:29

Copyright Ó 2013 J. Neely
Galatians 3:29

29 And [de] if [ei] ye [humeis] be Christ's [Christos], then [ara] are ye [este] Abraham's [Abraam] seed [sperma], and [kai] heirs [kleronomos] according [kata] to the promise [epaggelia]. KJV-Interlinear

29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise. NASB

If you belong to Christ?  And how do you know that you belong to Christ?

Well, when you were born into this world, you were born into a system of slavery, out of which you could not escape.   

Bound to this world, you were bound to a task master, a guardian, of whom you had to live a life of perfection or else suffer the severe consequences for any, repeat, for any infraction.

Given that we are all human, none of us could or can live a perfect life.  None of us can meet the severe requirements of the Law of Moses which spells out the stringent requirements for living a perfect life.

In order to comply with the Law, we would have to work at our life with intense perfection, and from the source of our own efforts.

In this no one is capable of working carefully enough or thoroughly enough, or perfectly enough, thus everyone fails.

And when you fail, even for a single moment, then you have not lived the perfect life and thus have failed.  One single slip means less than perfection.  And you cannot undo an imperfection or go back and do it over.

Adam slipped and took one single bite.  He could not go back and unbite that fruit and then claim that it never happened.  Done is done.

So, without works to back you up, then you have nothing, unless someone else provides you with a means of obtaining perfection.

Enter faith.

God made a promise to Abraham for an inheritance.  Abraham believed in that promise and for that belief then Gods righteousness was credited to Abraham.

Abraham did nothing except believe, and that was the pattern for obtaining the promise of God. The pattern which applied to Abraham back then, and likewise applies to everyone throughout history.

That promise was made, dependent on one individual, the Messiah. 

Abrahams promise of an inheritance was contingent on the Messiah, and thus the promise looked forward to the Cross and the actual fulfillment of the promise in principle, in order to free all of humanity from the burden and sentence of eternal condemnation.

Continue in trying to gain Gods promise through your own works and you become the fool for trying to perpetuate a dead method.

Believe in Gods promise, and you gain Gods promise both of salvation and the eternal inheritance of life and much more, through that faith in the Messiah, who is Christ.

Faith means that you identify with Christ in His work, and not in your own work.  You are thus baptized in Christ by means of faith, not by water or any other human example.

In order to receive an inheritance from God you have to be a member of Gods family and become a qualified heir for that inheritance.

In order to be a member of Gods family you have to receive Gods promise, and you receive Gods promise through believing in Gods promise.  He gives it to you freely without any effort on your part.

Once you have become a member of Gods family, have identified yourself in Christ’s work, then you belong to Christ.  After all, it was He who did the work of salvation, purchasing your freedom from the slave market of sin and eternal condemnation.

Chirst paid the price, but He does not drag you off as a slave of His own, He offers you the choice to belong to Him, or to remain with the world and be forever in oblivion.

So, you make that choice of your own free will, through faith.

And not only through your faith do you belong to Christ, but also you become an offspring, as it were, of Abraham, by means of the pattern of faith which he demonstrated a very long time ago.

So, faith is not genetic.  Faith is not cultural.  Faith is not bound by color.  Faith is not identified with any social rank or privilege.  Faith is not dependent on one’s mental or physical ability. Faith is not diminished by any type of handicap.

Faith has nothing to do with any sort of human attribute.


Faith is your ticket and admission to eternal life, and once you believe, you cannot unbelieve.  Faith is permanent and no one can take it from you.