{"id":63,"date":"2008-01-22T08:12:31","date_gmt":"2008-01-22T14:12:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/01\/22\/galatians-52-faith-alone\/"},"modified":"2008-01-22T08:12:31","modified_gmt":"2008-01-22T14:12:31","slug":"galatians-52-faith-alone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/galatians-52-faith-alone\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 5:2 &#8211; Faith Alone"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/Banner-MOG-60.gif\" alt=\"Ministry of Grace Church\" height=\"58\" width=\"472\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"left\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Section1\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: maroon\">Galatians 5:2<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><strong><span style=\"color: navy\">Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing.<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 0.25in\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Truth to Learn<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Obedience to the Law of Moses (or any other set of rules and regulations) adds nothing to salvation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Behind the Words<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The word translated \u201c<span style=\"color: navy\">indeed<\/span>\u201d is <em><span style=\"color: maroon\">eid\u014d<\/span><\/em> which means \u201cto see\u201d or \u201cto know.\u201d It is used in this verse in the imperative mood indicating a command. Paul is commanding the Galatian Christians to know something important. Today, in English we express a similar notion with the word \u201clook,\u201d meaning \u201cunderstand this.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">\u201c<span style=\"color: navy\">Become circumcised<\/span>\u201d is from the Greek word <em><span style=\"color: maroon\">peritemn\u0113sthe<\/span><\/em>, which is a compound word made up of <em><span style=\"color: maroon\">peri<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201caround\u201d or \u201cabout\u201d and a form of <em><span style=\"color: maroon\">temn\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning to cut off. This word is expressed in the passive voice, indicating action that is done to the subject. And, it is expressed in the subjunctive mood indicating that it is action that has not happened and is not happening but has the possibility of happening.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">The word translated \u201c<span style=\"color: navy\">profit<\/span>\u201d is a form of the Greek word <em><span style=\"color: maroon\">\u014dphele\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which literally means \u201cto heap up\u201d hence, \u201cto increase\u201d or \u201cto profit.\u201d It is expressed here in the future tense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt; page-break-after: avoid\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Meaning Explained<o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Up to this point in his letter to the Galatian Christians, Paul has defended the source of his message, his salvation in Christ Jesus, and his claim to apostleship. He has defended his position of righteousness by grace through faith alone and the inability of the Law of Moses to produce righteousness and he has done so in the presence of the leading members of the church in Jerusalem. He has shown that even Abraham was justified by faith more than four hundred years before the Law was given to Moses. And he has demonstrated that is not those who are descendents of Abraham in the flesh who are God\u2019s chosen, but those who believe God\u2019s Word who are chosen by God and are to be God\u2019s children and heirs through adoption.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">Now that he has laid the groundwork, Paul expresses the main point of his letter, \u201cif you should become circumcised then Jesus Christ and his sacrificial death will profit you nothing.\u201d He is not saying that if you are already circumcised then faith in Christ is impossible, as some translations seem to imply. He is saying that if you choose to be circumcised, then by that act you are declaring that you believe that salvation comes through works of the law. And, if you believe that salvation comes via works, then you don\u2019t believe that salvation is by faith alone. The act of becoming circumcised after having proclaimed faith in the blood of Christ is, in fact, a declaration that you never had faith in Christ in the first place.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\">Don\u2019t miss this point, as it is one of the most important doctrinal issues that Paul defends. Salvation does not come by faith <strong>and<\/strong> anything else. It comes by faith alone! Once you have accepted the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross, and the shedding of His blood there as payment for your sins, there is nothing more that you need in order to be a Christian, a child of God, and an heir of all His promises.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><o:p> <\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\" style=\"margin-top: 6pt\"><strong><u><span style=\"font-size: 14pt\">Application <o:p><\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">As Paul told the Philippian jailer, \u201cBelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.\u201d That\u2019s all there is to it!<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'\"><br style=\"page-break-before: always\" clear=\"all\" \/><\/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=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/signature.gif\" alt=\"signature\" height=\"35\" width=\"63\" \/><\/p>\n<p align=\"right\"><span style=\"font-size: 10pt; font-family: NuptialScript\">Copyright \u00a9 2008<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=\"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/Will_e-mail.gif\" alt=\"e-mail address\" height=\"40\" width=\"156\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; &nbsp; Galatians 5:2 Indeed I, Paul, say to you that if you become circumcised, Christ will profit you nothing. Truth to Learn Obedience to the Law of Moses (or any other set of rules and regulations) adds nothing to salvation. Behind the Words The word translated \u201cindeed\u201d is eid\u014d which means \u201cto see\u201d or [&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":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-5"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-11","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63","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=63"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}