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Galatians 2:15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n We<\/span><\/strong> who are<\/span><\/em> Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n An arrogant Christian is an oxymoron. We who are saved by the blood of Christ should never be proud of ourselves.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The words \u201cby nature<\/span>\u201d are translated from the Greek word phusis<\/span><\/em>. This word is derived from the noun phuo<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto bring forth\u201d or \u201cto give birth.\u201d In this verse this word refers to the Jews who were natural born Jews, that is, those who had been Jews since birth.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Although this is a short verse it elicits a couple of questions that have been the topics of debate for centuries. The first, and less obvious, is, \u201cWho is Paul addressing with the remainder of this chapter?\u201d Some say that he is now again addressing the Galatian Christians, while others argue that Paul is still addressing Peter, Barnabas, and the other Jews in their company. To answer this question let\u2019s look at the context. In this verse and the remainder of the chapter Paul does not specifically indicate that he has changed audiences however beginning with the first verse of the next chapter he does, for he says: \u201cO foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that<\/span> <\/span>\u2026\u201d So it appears that the remainder of the current chapter is a recounting of what Paul said to Peter, Barnabas, and the others.<\/p>\n The second question that has arisen about this verse is, \u201cWhat does Paul mean by \u201cnot sinners of the Gentiles\u2019?\u201d It appears that he is saying that all Gentiles are sinners and that all Jews are righteous. But, if you read Paul\u2019s letter to the Romans you find that Paul understands that there is neither a Jew nor a Gentile who is not a sinner.<\/p>\n What then? Are we better than they? <\/span>Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Gentiles<\/span> that they are all under sin. As it is written: “there is none righteous, no, not one;\u201d<\/span>(Romans 3:9, 10<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n What Paul is referring to in the current verse is that the Jews were given special revelation with the bringing of the Law, and God chose them to be caretakers of this Law. Therefore, the Jews had complete instruction of what God\u2019s expects from mankind whereas the Gentiles did not have this instruction. As a result, the Gentiles were not restrained from sinning as the Jews were because they didn\u2019t have God\u2019s revelation to man. And, for this reason, the Jews tended to think of themselves as righteous by the keeping of the Law and they thought of Gentiles as unrighteous and sinful, unfit for fellowship or even conversation.<\/p>\n Paul is going to use this notion to reiterate for the others that it is not through the keeping of the Law that we are righteous but through faith in Jesus Christ. And these others know this truth, but they have allowed themselves to be drawn away from the simple truths of the gospel into hypocrisy.<\/p>\n Application <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Have you allowed yourself to become arrogant in your faith, somehow better than others who are sinful and unsaved?<\/p>\n We all need to return to the basics of our faith from time to time to remember that we are saved by God\u2019s grace. As such, our calling in life is to be humble, submitted servants of our Lord (our owner) who is also our Savior, Jesus Christ.<\/p>\n In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n Copyright \u00a9 2007 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n <\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to: Galatians 2:15 We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, Truth to Learn An arrogant Christian is an oxymoron. We who are saved by the blood of Christ should never be proud of ourselves. Behind the Words The words \u201cby nature\u201d are translated from the Greek word phusis. This word is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-2C","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"..\/..\/signature.gif\")
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