(Tap footnote to read it. Old Testament quotations are underlined. "Love" with a caret ("^love") is agapé.1"agapé" The Greek words ἀγάπη (agapé, noun), and ἀγαπάω (agapaó; verb) are typically translated "love". However, unlike our English word "love" – which primarily speaks of affection and feelings – agapé centers on choice and behavior. It’s the "love" based on will, choice, behavior, and action; not feelings. (Feelings-based love is the Greek word φιλέω (phileó), which properly means "brotherly love/affection".) Thus, you could hate someone passionately and still treat him with "agapé". Agapé "love" is best understood as the pursuit of what is most beneficial to someone or something, regardless of the cost to yourself or the type of response received from the person or thing. It can also indicate a preference for someone or something over other things. )
Righteousness through Grace, not Law
- You foolish Galatians! Who bewitched you [not to be persuaded of the truth], before whose eyes Jesus the Anointed was publicly portrayed as having been crucified.
- I only want to learn this from you: did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
- Are you foolish this way? Having begun by the Spirit are you now perfecting yourselves1“perfecting yourselves” could also be translated “being perfected” because the ending for the middle and passive voices are the same for same this Greek word. by the flesh?
- Did you suffer so many things pointlessly? (If it really even was pointlessly.)
- Therefore, the One abundantly supplying the Spirit to you and working miracles among you, does He do it by works of the law or by hearing with faith?
- Just as “Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.”2quotation/allusion to Genesis 15:6
- Therefore, know that the men of faith; these are sons of Abraham.
- And having foreseen that God makes the gentiles righteous by faith, the scripture preached the gospel to Abraham beforehand, saying that: “In you, all the nations will be blessed.”3quotation/allusion to Genesis 22:18
- So then, the men of faith are blessed with Abraham, the man of faith.
- For as many as works of the law are, they are under a curse. For it is *written: “Cursed is everyone who doesn’t continue keeping all things which have been written in the book of the law, to do them.”4quotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 27:26
- And that no one is made righteous before God by the law is obvious because “The righteous will live by faith.”5quotation/allusion to Habakkuk 2:4
- And the law isn’t from faith, but: “The man who does them will live by them.”6quotation/allusion Leviticus 18:5
- The Anointed purchased us from the curse of the law by having become a curse for us, because it is *written: “Cursed is every man hanging on a tree.”7quotation/allusion to Deuteronomy 21:23
- So in Jesus the Anointed, the blessing of Abraham might be in the gentiles so we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
- Brothers, let me now speak in the way of man: even when a mere man has ratified a covenant, no one annuls it or makes an addition.
- And the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. It doesn’t say “and to the seeds” like they were many; but “and to your seed” like there is one, who is the Anointed.
- And I say this: the covenant has been ratified beforehand by God. The law which has come into being 430 years later doesn’t annul it, for it to abolish the promise.
- For if the inheritance is from the law, it’s no longer from a promise. But God has graced8“grace” The Greek word here is a verb form of “χάρις” (charis), most often translated “grace” or “gift”. It was a technical term in the 1st century, referring to the Patronage system in place. The Patron (from “pater” = “father”) would give gifts or do favors (both called a charis) for someone. A charis was always given/done freely to anyone who would be grateful for it, and this person then became a “client” of the patron. The clients were expected to reciprocate by telling everyone what the patron had done, and offering their services to the patron whenever the patron needed them. This reciprocal act was also called “charis”, and the ones who reciprocated were “being faithful”. Both were done out of gratitude, not legal obligation. A client who wasn’t faithful and grateful probably wouldn’t receive any more charis from his patron, or any other patrons. The patron was responsible for taking care of all his clients, and making sure their needs were met. Christian Grace and Faith is well picture by this system. The Heavenly Patron (God the Father) freely gave a gift (Jesus’ blood), and the clients who accept it (Christians) are expected to “be faithful” out of gratitude. it to Abraham through a promise.
Why the Law came
- Then why the law? Because of deliberate sins it was put into place, having been carefully arranged through angels in the hand of a mediator, until the seed might come to whom the promise has been made.
- (Now, a mediator isn’t for one man only, but God is one.)
- Then is the law opposed to the promises of God? May it never be! For if a law able to give life was given, then righteousness would truly be from the law.
- But the scripture imprisoned all things under sin, so the promise from faith in Jesus the Anointed might be given to the men believing.
- And before the faith came, we were being guarded under the law, being imprisoned until the faith about to be revealed came.
- So the law has become a strict schoolmaster9“strict schoolmaster” The Greek word here refers to a man (typically a slave) who was in charge of a boy’s education and discipline. The boy wasn’t even allow to leave the house with this man’s permission, and they were regarded as being very strict in discipline. for us, leading into the Anointed so we might be made righteous by faith.
- But faith having come, we’re no longer under a strict schoolmaster.
- For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus the Anointed.
- For as many of you as were baptized into the Anointed, you clothed yourselves with the Anointed.
- There’s neither Jew nor Greek, there’s neither slave nor free, there isn’t male and female, for all of you are one in Jesus the Anointed.
- And if you are the Anointed’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.
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