ISSL Reflections October 29 2023 Galatians 3:23–4:7 Post 1

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I.
Where has God been for you in different “seasons” of your life?

II.
Galatians 3:23-4:7 (NRSVue)

Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be reckoned as righteous by faith. But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek; there is no longer slave or free; there is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise.

My point is this: heirs, as long as they are minors, are no better than those who are enslaved, though they are the owners of all the property, but they remain under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So with us; while we were minors, we were enslaved to the elemental principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba!] Father!” So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir through God.

III.
This week’s Scripture passage begins with “Now before faith came ….”

Where were you before “… faith came …” in your life?

Paul claims “we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until …”

Can you reflect on your life and see a time when you might have been “… imprisoned and guarded by the law”?

What might Paul tell us this reveals about God’s care for us and nearness to us?

Charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 22 2023 Galatians 3:1–14 Post 3

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VII.
Before you reread these words directed to Jesus’ disciples in Galatia, still your spirit, open your mind and heart to any words of encouragement you find.

VIII.
Galatians 3:1-14 (NRSVue)

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?

Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would reckon as righteous the gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the gentiles shall be blessed in you.” For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” Now it is evident that no one is reckoned as righteous before God by the law, for “the one who is righteous will live by faith.” But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” — in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

IX.
What words from Paul seem meant for you today?

Does it encourage you that you can leave behind “the works of the law”?

Or does that seem like a difficult thing to do?

We read “those who believe are blessed….” What blessing comes to mind as you read this?

“Christ redeemed us … so we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

“… redeemed …

… receive the promise of the Spirit through faith….”

What captures you as you hear that you are redeemed?

How do you experience receiving the promised Spirit?

How can you accept this Spirit and live into this redeemed life?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 22 2023 Galatians 3:1–14 Post 2

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IV.
If the “promise of the Spirit” and living a life “with the Spirit” are so great, why would anyone be “bewitched” by “doing the works of the law”?

As you read these words of Paul keep that question in mind.

V.
Galatians 3:1-14 (NRSVue)

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?

Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would reckon as righteous the gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the gentiles shall be blessed in you.” For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” Now it is evident that no one is reckoned as righteous before God by the law, for “the one who is righteous will live by faith.” But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” — in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

VI.
Do you see anything in these words to the followers of Christ in Galatia that help you understand why they might prefer “the Law” to “[living] by faith” that Paul speaks of here (and elsewhere)?

Do you ever sense it might be easier and even better somehow to live by the Law and rely on the “works of the law” than to live by faith that comes by way of relationship to God in Christ?

Paul asks his readers to recognize that “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law…”

How would you express what we can be redeemed from and redeemed to?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 22 2023 Galatians 3:1–14 Post 1

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I.
We continue this week listening to Paul contrast living by the law and living by the Spirit.

As you read this passage today, look for and make a note of how he contrasts the two ways of life.

II.
Galatians 3:1-14 (NRSVue)

You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?

Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would reckon as righteous the gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the gentiles shall be blessed in you.” For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.

For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse, for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” Now it is evident that no one is reckoned as righteous before God by the law, for “the one who is righteous will live by faith.” But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree” — in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

III.
Would you call these two ways the way of the Law and the way of the Spirit? What else might you call them?

How is it possible that one can be “bewitched” to continue to live the way of Law and the way of “flesh”?

If “the law does not rest on faith,” what does it rest on?

What does the way of redemption rest on?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 15 2023 Galatians 2:11–21 Post 3

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VII.
Paul remarks, “… if I build up the very things that I once tore down …”

Take time today to reread these paragraphs and see if you notice what he means when he writes of “… the very things that I once tore down.”

VIII.
Galatians 2:11-21 (NRSVue)

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned, for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the gentiles to live like Jews?”

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

IX.
We know that before Paul’s trip to Damascus he gave all his time and energy to tearing down what the followers of “the Way” were building (Acts 9:2). But it seems unlikely that is what Paul is thinking of here.

Does his contrast of Jew and Gentile and his contrast of “faith of Christ” and “works of the law” help us understand what he is intent on not tearing down?

He seems intent on being so faithful to “Christ who lives in me,” that he wants himself and all the other disciples of Jesus to not fall back on depending on their own ability to keep the law or their own “effort to be justified in Christ.”

How can we live a similar life of faith that depends not on our ability to manufacture faith, but depends on “the Son of God, who loved [us] and gave himself for [us]”?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 15 2023 Galatians 2:11–21 Post 2

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IV.
In the last post I concentrated on what I saw as the passion with which Paul recalled his confirmation with Peter.

Today let’s look at the second paragraph in this week’s reading and look for the energy and passion he brings to thoughts about law and faith.

V.
Galatians 2:11-21 (NRSVue)

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned, for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the gentiles to live like Jews?”

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

VI.
My attention is drawn to Paul’s claim, “… in our effort to be justified in Christ ….” He speaks of himself as a “sinner” and “transgressor.”

It seems to me that his contrast of law and faith is at the root of his words, and his passion.

Read this again and notice what he contrasts with law.

What do you hear?

Where does Paul find life? Why?

What animates your daily life?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 15 2023 Galatians 2:11–21 Post 1

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I.
As I read (and listen) to Paul in what follows, I am impressed by the passion he brings to these words. Do you hear it? Do you feel it?

Some might call it “energy“.” Some might call it “anger.”

What do you hear?

II.
Galatians 2:11-21 (NRSVue)

But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood self-condemned, for until certain people came from James, he used to eat with the gentiles. But after they came, he drew back and kept himself separate for fear of the circumcision faction. And the other Jews joined him in this hypocrisy, so that even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. But when I saw that they were not acting consistently with the truth of the gospel, I said to Cephas before them all, “If you, though a Jew, live like a gentile and not like a Jew, how can you compel the gentiles to live like Jews?”

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not gentile sinners, yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through the faith of Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law. But if, in our effort to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have been found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! But if I build up again the very things that I once tore down, then I demonstrate that I am a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

III.
Did you notice,

“… I opposed … stood self-condemened … drew back … led astray …”

There is a vividness to his description of those events that, to me, speaks of the passion/emotion with which he recalls the encounter with Peter.

Why?

Does it lead Paul to recall an essential part of the Gospel he speaks of on every occasion when he recalls his work to proclaim this Gospel? When he thinks of what he has now given his life to?

How would you describe what leads Paul to such passion?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 8 2023 Romans 7:1–12 Post 1

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I.
In our Scripture for this week Paul sets his focus on “the law.”

As you spend time with this passage, set your own focus on what says about “the law.” Pay attention to what he might say about the positive and negative aspects of “the law.”

II.
Romans 7:1-12 (NRSVue)

Or do you not know, brothers and sisters—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only during that person’s lifetime? Thus a married woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as he lives, but if her husband dies, she is discharged from the law concerning the husband. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she belongs to another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she belongs to another man, she is not an adulteress.

In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are discharged from the law, dead to that which held us captive, so that we are enslaved in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the written code.

What then are we to say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet, if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.” But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I died, and the very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me. For sin, seizing an opportunity in the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and just and good.

III.
As you read Paul’s words about “the law,” did you notice that he said, “you have died to the law … so that you may belong to another.”

In part I want to ask myself “What is the law to me, if I am dead to it?”

But then I want to ask myself, “Who do I belong to?” And “What difference might it make?”

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 1 2023 Romans 2:12–24, 28–29 Post 3

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VII.
Let’s go to a couple of things Paul wrote in other epistles.

“… even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh. If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.” (Philippians 3:4-6)

“Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I.” (2 Corinthians 11:22)

And here, he can write,

“For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code.” (Romans 2:28-29)

What does it take to move a person from such confidence in the “outward” to such confidence in the “inward,” the “heart.”

VIII.
Romans 2:12-24, 28-29 (NRSVue)

All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged in accordance with the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified. When gentiles, who do not possess the law, by nature do what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God through Christ Jesus judges the secret thoughts of all.

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.”

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.

IX.
Did you notice,

“[Gentiles] show that what the law requires is written on their hearts …” (Romans 2:15)

Is there always a witness to the Law in the conscience? Of both Jew and Gentile?

If there is perhaps a “universal” witness to the law, I wonder if there is a “universal” witness to grace, to lovingkindness, to mercy.

Has God placed within the reach of all, the opening to an understanding of grace and even how we can live into God’s grace?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}

ISSL Reflections October 1 2023 Romans 2:12–24, 28–29 Post 2

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IV.
Did you hear, “… will you not teach yourself?”

Take some time to slowly read this passage and take note of what Paul thinks his readers should be able to “teach” themselves.

V.
Romans 2:12-24, 28-29 (NRSVue)

All who have sinned apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged in accordance with the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous in God’s sight but the doers of the law who will be justified. When gentiles, who do not possess the law, by nature do what the law requires, these, though not having the law, are a law to themselves. They show that what the law requires is written on their hearts, as their own conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts will accuse or perhaps excuse them on the day when, according to my gospel, God through Christ Jesus judges the secret thoughts of all.

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast of your relation to God and know his will and determine what really matters because you are instructed in the law, and if you are sure that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth, you, then, who teach others, will you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? You who forbid adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by your transgression of the law? For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.”

For a person is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision something external and physical. Rather, a person is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not the written code. Such a person receives praise not from humans but from God.

VI.
What did you notice that the disciple of Jesus should “teach” themselves?

Something about “the law,” “your relation to God,” “know [God’s]will,” being “a guide to the blind.”

What else?

Read the passage one more time and this time look for what Jesus (and Paul) might want you to “teach yourself.”

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}