Well, today was a complete failure. My intention was to complete an overview of Galatians 3, but was only able to get through verse 10. Paul opens this great doctrine chapter with a series of rhetorical questions in V.1-5 concerning what moved them from a life of faith to the works of the law. In V.6-9 Paul uses the life of Abraham being the father of faith. All nations are blessed through his exercise of belief in God's word that he would be the father of a great nation, and there would be a physical land prepared for him and his descendants. Genesis 15:6 states he believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Next Sunday, we will complete our overview of chapter 3. V.10-29 reveal three dispensations, from Promise with Abraham, to Law and Moses, to Grace and Paul. We must always be careful to identify when Paul is speaking of things in the present, during this dispensation of grace, the law is null and faith is supreme. Paul walks us through an incredible journey of Bible understanding helping us to rightly divide the word of truth. Dispensation: The method according to which God dispenses or carries out his plan of grace toward man at a particular time. Remember, all the Bible was not written to me, but all the Bible was written for me. Whenever we study a scripture, we must first seek to understand what it says, then decide whether we will believe what it says. The struggle that occurs is when the plain text of the scripture contradicts what we have been taught or always believed. We then come to a crossroad of accepting the new truth, or saying, “I don't believe that.” I believe we had that kind of moment today in Matthew 19:16-22, with the rich young ruler. Jesus was clearly speaking in an Old Testament context, concerning eternal life. I am sure we will come to more crossroads like this, as we go through Paul's letters, and seek to grow in Christ.
