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Galatians 2:21<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness<\/span><\/strong> comes<\/span><\/em> through the law, then Christ died in vain.<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Truth to Learn<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Salvation is all God\u2019s work and none of ours.<\/p>\n Behind the Words<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n The word translated \u201cset aside<\/span>\u201d is athet\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which is made up of a<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cnot\u201d and thetos<\/span><\/em> which refers to something that has been placed in a certain location. Therefore, this word literally means \u201cnot placed\u201d or, as we would say, \u201cdisplaced.\u201d <\/span>Hence, it has the notion of something that has been cast aside, abolished, or thrown away.<\/p>\n The expression \u201cin vain<\/span>\u201d comes from the Greek word, d\u014drean<\/span><\/em>, which is a form of d\u014drea<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cas a gift,\u201d \u201cfreely,\u201d or \u201cwithout value or purpose.\u201d So, Paul is saying that if righteousness comes through obedience to the law then there was no value in Christ\u2019s death on the cross.<\/p>\n Meaning Explained<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Paul\u2019s argument to Peter, Barnabas, and the other Jewish Christians is that we are made righteous, and kept righteous, by God\u2019s grace, not by obeying the ordinances of the Law. But obviously, Peter and the others by their actions are still trying to uphold at least part of the Law. They are, in effect, throwing away the grace of God by trying to keep the ordinances of the Law after they have been saved.<\/p>\n Paul now strongly admonishes them that they should not get rid of God\u2019s grace. After all, if our righteousness comes by obeying the Law and not by grace, then Christ died in vain. And His sacrificial death on the cross has no effect if we must also satisfy the Law after we have been saved.<\/p>\n In Ephesians 2:8-10a<\/span><\/strong> Paul said:<\/p>\n For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is<\/span> the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship<\/span><\/p>\n Our salvation is a gift of God, it is not earned. It is a work that He did, not us. If we earned (or completed) our salvation by fulfilling the Law (or obeying church rules and ordinances) then we would have something that we could boast about. As it is, we can\u2019t boast about any part of our salvation because we didn\u2019t earn it in any way at all! It is a gift, freely given by God!<\/p>\n Old habits are hard to break. Peter, Barnabus, and the other Jewish Christians who were caught-up in this legalistic practice were raised on the Law of Moses. Throughout most of their lives they were taught that they had to do these things in order to please God. Paul, too, had been brought up under the law, but he understood God\u2019s grace as being all God\u2019s work with nothing from man. That\u2019s how this marvelous grace is: it\u2019s all (all from God) and nothing (nothing from man).<\/p>\n Application <\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If you are saved and you are still trying to make yourself acceptable to God by obeying any set of rules, then you are declaring by your actions that God\u2019s gift is not sufficient for you. And, by doing this, instead of showing God how worthy you are, you are trampling all over His gift.<\/p>\n Now, that\u2019s something to think about!<\/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 2:21 I do not set aside the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died in vain. Truth to Learn Salvation is all God\u2019s work and none of ours. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cset aside\u201d is athet\u014d, which is made up of a, meaning \u201cnot\u201d and thetos […]<\/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-170","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-2K","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170","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=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"signature\"](\"..\/..\/signature.gif\")
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