{"id":167,"date":"2007-09-25T19:32:06","date_gmt":"2007-09-26T01:32:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/?p=167"},"modified":"2007-09-25T19:32:06","modified_gmt":"2007-09-26T01:32:06","slug":"galatians-219-free-to-obey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/galatians-219-free-to-obey\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 2:19 &#8211; Free to Obey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/Banner-MOG-60.gif\" alt=\"Ministry of Grace Church\" width=\"472\" height=\"58\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: maroon;\">Galatians 2:19<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"color: navy;\">For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0.25in;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">We are no longer subject to the law, we are free to obey God.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The word translated \u201c<span style=\"color: navy;\">through<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word <em><span style=\"color: maroon;\">dia<\/span><\/em>. Like its English equivalent this word can imply: 1-Motion through space, 2-Continuance through time, or 3-Cause or instrumentality. In the current verse it implies cause or instrumentality.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt; page-break-after: avoid;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">This is yet another verse that is difficult to understand and the meaning of which has been much debated. Again, there are two schools of thought. The first is that the expression \u201c<span style=\"color: navy;\">through the law<\/span>\u201d actually refers to the doctrines of Christianity. The word translated \u201c<span style=\"color: navy;\">law<\/span>\u201d is a form of \u201c<em><span style=\"color: maroon;\">nomos<\/span><\/em>\u201d which is normally translated as \u201claw\u201d but can also express a school of doctrine. It is this sense in which Paul refers to the law of Christ in <strong><span style=\"color: maroon;\">Galatians 6:2<\/span><\/strong>. Hence the meaning of this verse could be, \u201cFor through the doctrine of Christ I died to the Law of Moses that I might live to God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt;\">The other interpretation of this verse is that Paul is saying it was the Law of Moses that led him to understand the truth about Christ. In this sense, the Law of Moses was his tutor as he expresses later in <strong><span style=\"color: maroon;\">Galatians 3:24<\/span><\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 6pt 0.25in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"color: navy;\">But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe. But before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor <span>to bring us<\/span> to Christ, that we might be justified by faith.<\/span> (<strong><span style=\"color: maroon;\">Galatians 3:22-24<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt;\">This is the more natural interpretation of what Paul is saying here. That is, through the Law of Moses I was introduced to the liberating truth of faith in Jesus Christ. And, as a result of that faith I am now dead to the Law of Moses and alive through faith so that I might live to God in a manner that places me righteous in His eyes. Paul expressed this in a similar way in his letter to the Christians at Rome.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin: 6pt 0.25in 0.0001pt;\"><span style=\"color: navy;\">Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, \u2026 But now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by, so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not <span>in<\/span> the oldness of the letter.<\/span> (<strong><span style=\"color: maroon;\">Romans 7:4a, 6<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt;\">Either way we interpret this, it is clear that we are dead to the Law. Just as the Constitution and laws of our own land have no influence on the thoughts and behavior of someone who is physically dead, so the Law of Moses has no influence on us since we are dead to the Law and alive to Christ. Now, He is the only thing that should be influencing our thoughts and actions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt;\"><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><span style=\"font-size: 14pt;\">Application <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: &quot;Times New Roman&quot;,&quot;serif&quot;;\">Since we are dead to the law, it has no power over us and we are not, indeed cannot be, subject to its requirements. But we are now alive (spiritually) to God and must, therefore, be subject to Him. We are no longer forced to sin. Instead, we are free to obey God.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt;\"><strong>In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/..\/signature.gif\" alt=\"signature\" width=\"63\" height=\"35\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: NuptialScript;\">Copyright \u00a9 2007<span> <\/span>Will<span> <\/span>Krause.  All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211; &#8211;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman';\"> <\/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:<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"..\/..\/Will_e-mail.gif\" alt=\"e-mail address\" width=\"156\" height=\"40\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Galatians 2:19 For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. Truth to Learn We are no longer subject to the law, we are free to obey God. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cthrough\u201d is the Greek word dia. Like its English equivalent this word can imply: 1-Motion [&hellip;]<\/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-167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-2H","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167","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=167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}