The Spirit Controlled Life

[Bishop Juan Nuevo]

One of the biggest problems of the church today is the one of legalism; I’m totally convinced that the book of Galatians is much appropriate for the church today. That is what to me makes Galatians a very exiting book in this book or letter to the churches of Galatia the Apostle Paul lays down a foundation which every Christian need in his life to guard against this is the most subtle trap believer’s fall into – the trap of legalism.

In church age today when some body hires the word legalism mentioned, most Christians automatically think of the Ten Commandments or the Mosaic Law. But legalism involves much more and is much more subtle than that, is much less evident. And, therefore, much more dangerous.

When Paul wrote this letter, legalism was primarily an over emphasis on the observance of the Jewish law which blinded their eyes to the truth of the Gospel and the salvation it offers by grace. To the modern day Christian, legalism is more an attitude than an act, which makes it all the more difficult to detect and avoid. Most of us we are not even aware we are guilty of it. Because it is so insidious, we have unsuspectingly allowed this attitude to creep into virtually every facet of our daily Christian life.
Here I want to define legalism and examining its effects upon us as Christians. I will show how it has come to exert an influence upon everything in our church life from water baptism to personal witnessing. I’ll show you the dangers of legalism and help you find ways to overcome this most subtle of Satan’s attack upon the church of Jesus Christ.

In one word, the book of Galatians is a declaration of faith-and faith alone. Faith for salvation, and faith for spiritually. Faith that is based not upon any effort, or action, or observance on our part but is founded solely and entirely upon the grace of God. In fact, Galatians could be called the Manifesto of Grace, or the Magnacarta of Grace.

Before I actually begin to bring to you this study of this powerful book/letter, let’s review for a moment. Who were exactly the Galatians? The Galatians of Paul’s day were descendant of barbaric tribes which had infiltrated the Roman Empire. These were all distant branches of the Celts which later settle in Ireland, Scotland and Wales. So the Galatians are distant cousins of the modern-day Irish.

One thing that is worth noticing is that on his opening remark the Apostle Paul makes this statement ‘to the churches of Galatia’. Notice that this word is plural. The letter to the Galatians is the only letter directed to more than one church. The letter to the Ephesians was written to the church in Ephesus. Philippians was addressed to the church in Philippi. Corinthians to the church in the city of Corinth. But Galatians was sent to the churches of Galatia, because Galatia is not a city, but a province. There were four major cities in the province of Galatia- Antioch, Iconium, Derbe and Lystra. (See Acts 14) Paul intended that his letter by passed from city to city from church to church and by preached and read.

In this marvellous letter we will find several basic themes: The Abrahamic Covenant, the blessing of Abraham, Redemption from the curse of the Law, the fruit of the Spirit versus works of the flesh, and several others.

One of the things I want you to notice is how Paul’s message of Grace was always the same- faith for salvation, faith for spirituality. I will show you how, because of his message, everywhere he went Paul was hounded and harassed by the legalistic Judaizers with their insistence that organised religion was the only means to salvation. Trough all of this, our attention will be fixed upon one central truth – the grace of God which was poured out at Calvary, freeing us from all self-striving so we may live truly Spirit-filled, fruitful lives of freedom and joy. And I will show you how to break free in did from the snare of religion always imposed by men in order to control.

The book of Galatians is parallel with the book of Ephesians. This both book/letters address the subject of Grace versus the one of legalism. Burt where the Ephesians emphasises the positive side, Galatians stresses the negative aspect of this conflict, not that the book itself is negative. But in Ephesians Paul lays more emphasis on how wonderful it is to understand grace, whereas in Galatians Paul points out the stupidity of falling from legalism.

This is not a sweet letter Paul is angry with the people of Galatia and makes no attempt to hide his anger. I have this vision of Paul been pounding on the table as he writes this letter with strong word of rebuke. He does not mean his words he refers the Galatians as “Foolish”. ‘A more accurate translation for today would be “Stupid”! This some times becomes shocking to people to realise that Paul would use such terminology in a letter to the churches.

We must understand that everything Paul has learned about this church and its situation is trough written letters during his absence following his first missionary journey there. Paul is so disturbed about these events he is moved to write this letter with sarcastic language.

The main problem here is that the Galatians church had entered their spiritual walk by faith were now attempting to complete that walk by adhering to Jewish law. This is happening because they had begin to listen to the legalistic Judaizers, many of whom were truly born again believers, but they insisted that compliance with the strict codes of Judaism applied equally to Gentiles Christians as well as to Jew believers. So the Galatians who had embraced the message of Christ were now trying to combine the message of Grace with the observance of Jewish law. O Lord open our eyes that we may see your glory!! This people were trying to bridge the fence between legalism and Grace, to live by the precepts of the New Testament while adhering to the rules and regulations of the Old. And I will show you, Paul makes it abundantly clear that such a walk is not only impossible, it is a denial of the atonement and an abomination in the sight of God.

Next time I will begin to show you the most scandalous accusation ever raised against religion, allowing us to set us free from the law of sin and death, that we may discover in it the fullness of life in the Spirit.

Until then;

Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Juan Nuevo
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