#109-G55 ~ Galatians 2:16d
The heart of this book of Galatians is to do with the principle of grace. Salvation is free! It comes to us by grace through faith in Christ alone. But there are always people who want to think they can contribute to their salvation. Such is never the case!
Here we do a little review but then move right on with our study of this chapter. I then discuss our ultimate destiny–Heaven. That’s OUR eternal future, but that’s not regenerate Israel’s. They have a wonderful future, but its an earthly kingdom they have to look forward to enjoying. This is also a major part of the subject-matter of this epistle.
I then again focus on the place of simply believing something for our salvation. It is believing and believing alone that provides salvation for us. The object of that believing or our faith must be Christ and all He did to provide a way for our salvation. In that last phrase we have the word justification. Justification is simply the outcome when the righteousness of Christ is applied to us or credited to our account. This settles our salvation once and for all. It is through this that we receive all the righteousness God’s justice demands.
I then discuss this thing of losing one’s salvation. Can someone lose it and gain it again? Can they then lose it again and then gain it again? No! Salvation and regeneration [being born again] happens ONE time and one time only [Titus 3:5]. It is just like physical birth. It happens just once.
I then discuss three questions:
1-What does it mean to believe something? Do you believe Christ died for your sins? Anyone, even a child can do this.
2-What is the object of your faith for salvation? It must be Christ alone, His work, His death, burial, and resurrection alone.
3-What is this faith OF Jesus Christ? It is to do with the fidelity, the worthiness of Christ and His work as a basis for our salvation.
Salvation provides us with the guarantee that we’ll get to spend eternity in a wonderful place called Heaven. Eternally we’ll be there! But apart from this salvation, it will mean eternity in Hell and the Lake of Fire.
We then go to Matthew 5:17 where we see a statement about Christ’s work in fulfilling the law. I then explain what that means.
We then go to Acts 15:10 and what follows to discuss the problem of “keeping” the Mosaic Law. We note that Christ actually did this perfectly. Acts 21:20 and following is still another passage that discusses this. I here discuss the transitional aspects of the book of Acts followed by some comments about Colossians 2:16 and following, as well as Romans 3:19-20.
The bottom line to all this is that there is NOTHING man can do to provide for his salvation. This comes strictly through what Jesus Christ came into the world to prove through His death, burial, and resurrection. This is something for which we should be eternally grateful.
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