Читать книгу Letters of Paul to the Early Church - Robert H. Mounce - Страница 6

This is Paul the apostle writing to Christian churches throughout Galatia. I was appointed an apostle, not by some committee but by Jesus Christ and by God the Father who raised him from the dead. It did not require the imprimatur of some human agency. The believers here in Antioch join me in writing.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the evil world in which we live. That is exactly as the Father planned. To him be glory forever and ever! Amen.

I am astonished at what is happening in your assemblies since I left! It’s been such a short time since God called you by the grace of Christ and already you are deserting him, led astray by what claims to be another gospel. Of course, there is no other true gospel, but some of you have twisted what I taught about Christ and that has created all sorts of confusion. May the curse of God fall on anyone (including us or an angel from heaven) who would preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you! I’ll say it again: If anyone is preaching a gospel contrary to the one you received from us, may the curse of God fall on him!

I ask you, if I were trying to win your favor would I write to you like this? If my goal were to please people rather than God I’d no longer be a servant of Christ.

You need to understand that the gospel I preach is supernatural in origin. I didn’t receive it from some person nor was it taught to me. It came by direct revelation from Jesus Christ himself.

I’m sure you’ve heard how I used to live when I was a member of the Jewish faith, how I persecuted those I now realize to be God’s people. I was dead set on destroying that misguided bunch of heretics. It was widely known that I was far more zealous to preserve the traditions of my ancestors than were my fellow Jews. But when God, who had set me apart from birth and called me by his grace, decided to reveal his Son to me so I could take the message to the Gentiles, I didn’t go to some group of people for advice. I didn’t even go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were already apostles. Instead, I went to Arabia. After preaching there I returned to Damascus.

Actually, three years had gone by before I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter. In the two weeks we were together, the only other apostle I met was James, the brother of Christ.

Then I went north to preach in various parts of Syria and Cilicia. As for the Christian assemblies in Judea, they still didn’t know me on a personal basis. All they heard was that the one who used to persecute the followers of Christ was now preaching the faith he had tried so hard to destroy. So they began to praise God because of me.

Chapter 2

Fourteen years later I returned to Jerusalem with Barnabas, taking Titus along. I went in response to a revelation and met in private with the leaders to explain in detail the message I’d been preaching to the Gentiles. I wanted to make sure that we were in agreement and that my work had not been in vain. Even though Titus was a Greek, they didn’t require that he be circumcised. The issue had come up because some false believers had slipped into the group to spy out the freedom we were enjoying in Christ Jesus. Their intention was to enslave us once again in the chains of legalism. But we didn’t yield to their pressure, not even for a moment, because we were determined to preserve the truth for you.

Those who apparently were leaders in the Jerusalem church had nothing to add to my message. (Whatever role they played makes little difference to me; God doesn’t separate people into categories.) Quite the contrary, when they realized that God had chosen me to take the gospel to the uncircumcised, just as Peter had taken it to the circumcised, they gave Barnabas and me the right hand of fellowship. They understood that God, who had prepared Peter to be an apostle to the Jews, had prepared me to be an apostle to the Gentiles. So when James, Peter, and John, acknowledged leaders in the Jerusalem church, recognized God’s gracious act in choosing me, they agreed that we should go to the Gentiles while they would go to the Jews. They only thing they asked was that we remember the needs of the poor, and that was something we are certainly eager to do.

When Peter first went to Antioch he used to eat with the uncircumcised Gentiles believers. But when some men sent by James arrived from Jerusalem, Peter quit eating with the Gentiles for fear of what the circumcision party might say. Then the other Jewish Christians joined him in this hypocrisy. Even Barnabas played the hypocrite.

When I saw that these believers were acting in a way that violated the truth of the gospel, I opposed Peter face to face. What he was doing was clearly wrong. I said to Peter right there before them all, “If you who were born a Jew set aside Jewish law and began to live like a Gentile, on what basis are you now trying to force these Gentiles to fulfill a Jewish practice?”

“You and I are not ‘Gentile sinners,’ but Jews, people of the law. Even so, we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Christ Jesus, not by obeying the law. We have come to put our faith in Christ Jesus so we might be made right with God by faith in Christ and not by doing every last thing the law requires. No one will be declared righteous by doing what the law requires.

But if while trying to be set right by faith in Christ alone we add a legal requirement, then when we sin, and we will, it could be said that Christ is promoting sin. What blasphemy! If I were to make circumcision a requirement for righteousness, I would be rebuilding a system that was replaced by faith in Christ. In that case, my actions would show that I was wrong.

It was through the law that I died to the law so that I might live for God. I have been crucified with Christ so it is no longer I who lives but Christ who is living in me. The life I now live here on earth, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not devalue the covenantal grace of God for if righteousness could have been gained by keeping the law, then Christ would have died for no good reason.

Chapter 3

You thick-skulled Galatians! Someone must have cast an evil spell on you. There was a time when you understood the meaning of Christ’s death as if he’d been crucified right before your eyes. Let me ask you this: On what basis did you receive the Holy Spirit? Was it because you were doing what the law required or because you believed the message of Christ? You can’t be so foolish as to think that while the Christian life begins with the Spirit it can be perfected by human effort? So much has happened; has it all been for nothing? God didn’t give you his Holy Spirit and work miracles among you because you obeyed some laws but because you accepted by faith the message of Christ.

It was the same with Abraham. Scripture says that Abraham believed God and God credited this to his account as righteousness. So the true sons of Abraham are those who, like the patriarch, put their faith in God. Knowing that God would accept Gentiles as righteous on the basis of faith, scripture announced the good news to Abraham, “It is through you that I’m going to bless all the nations.” So those who put their faith in Christ receive the same blessing as did Abraham, the man of faith.

But those who seek a right standing with God by trying to keep the law are under a curse; for scripture says, “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to live up to everything that is written in the Book of the Law.” It is clear that no one is made right with God by trying to keep his commands, because scripture teaches, “It is only through faith that the righteous person can experience new life.” Law is based on a principle totally different from faith; it holds that a person can find life by doing what the law requires. But Christ rescued us from the curse of the law by accepting that curse on our behalf. Again, as scripture says, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Christ Jesus was cursed so that the blessing promised to Abraham might come to the Gentiles and that we who believe might receive by faith the promised Holy Spirit.

Here’s a parallel that may help you understand: When two people come to agreement and sign their names to a legal document, neither one can change it or pretend it doesn’t exist. Now God made a promise to Abraham and his descendant. Scripture doesn’t say “descendants,” plural, but “descendant,” singular, and that one descendant is Christ. God doesn’t break his promise, so it would be contrary to his character for the law he gave to Moses to annul the covenant he had made with Abraham 430 years earlier. If a person must keep the law in order to receive his inheritance, then the inheritance was not based on promise. But the inheritance intended for Abraham was based on promise, a promise made by God himself.

You might ask, “Then, why did God give the law?” The answer is that the purpose of the law is to point out human sinfulness until the descendant promised to Abraham would come. The law was given through angels, using a man as a mediator. A mediator is necessary when more than one party is involved, but God, who is one, delivered the promise to Abraham himself.

Does this mean that there is conflict between the law and the promises of God? Absolutely not! If law were able to impart life, then we could become right with God by obeying the law. But scripture declares the whole world to be under the control of sin, so what was promised through faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Before faith in Jesus Christ became an option, we were held in custody under the law, imprisoned until the coming way of faith in Christ would be revealed. The law was our disciplinarian until Christ came; then we could be made right with God by faith in him. Now that faith is here, we no longer need law to watch over us.

So it is by our faith in Christ Jesus that we’ve become children of God. All who are one with Christ (as indicated by baptism) have, as it were, put on Christ as a new garment. In fellowship with him we are all one. No longer do we identify ourselves as Jew or Greek, slave or free, male or female. It all comes down to this: If you belong to Christ, then you are a true descendant of Abraham, an heir of all God has promised.

Chapter 4

Here is a comparison: If a man dies and leaves an inheritance for his young son, as long as the son is a minor he is not much better off than the servants. It makes no difference that in one sense the entire estate is already his. Until the time determined by the father the heir is under the supervision of his guardian. And so it is with us. When we were still “children” we were under the control of the basic principles of legalistic Judaism. But when the right time finally came, God sent his own Son, born of woman and subject to law, to set us free from that law so he could adopt us as his own children. What’s more, because we are God’s children, he sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts causing us to cry out, “Abba! Father!” So now you are no longer a slave; you are a son! In declaring you his son, God made you the rightful heir of all that he has for his children.

Before you came to believe in Christ, you Gentiles were in bondage to idols that you thought were gods. But now that you have come to know the true God (or rather, are known by God) why would you ever go back to those weak and inferior principles that controlled the way you lived? Do you want to be their slaves again? Already you are starting to observe certain sacred days, months, seasons, and years! I’m genuinely worried about you. Has all my work with you been for nothing?

I beg you, dear friends in Christ, follow my example. I became like you Gentiles, living apart from religious law; now I’m asking you to become like me, free from the law’s demands. When I first came to Galatia with the gospel you were very solicitous about my physical problem. It was a severe test for you, but you didn’t react by drawing back or rejecting me. Quite the contrary, you took care of me as though I were an angel sent from God, as though I were Christ Jesus himself. What has happened to that wonderful relationship that brought us such joy? I believe that if it had been possible you would have pried out your own eyes and given them to me! Have I now become your enemy by telling you the truth?

Those false teachers in your midst are doing their level best to win your favor but what they intend is not good. They want to drive a wedge between us so you will give them your full attention. The old saying, “To do one’s best for a good purpose is worthy of praise,” is obviously true, but that’s not the case here. Dear children, once again I’m suffering the pain of childbirth as I wait for a Christ-like nature to become fully developed in you. I wish I could be there right now so I’d know how to get my point across. I’m not sure exactly how you are reacting.

Tell me, you who are eager to live under the law, are you aware of what the law actually says? Scripture teaches that Abraham had two sons, one by a servant girl and the other by a freeborn woman. The first was born in the usual way, the second in fulfillment of God’s promise.

This can be taken as an allegory in which the two women represent two covenants. The first was established on Mount Sinai where the law was given and, like Hagar, bore children who were in bondage to the law. Now Hagar, who represents Mount Sinai in Arabia, corresponds to the present day city of Jerusalem because she is in slavery to the law along with all her children. But the other woman, Sarah, who was born free, represents the heavenly Jerusalem, and she is our true mother. As it is written: “Shout for joy, O barren woman, you without child! Break forth in shouts of joy, you who have never felt the pain of bearing child! For the woman left desolate will have more children than the woman who has a husband.”

But you, my friends, are the children promised by God, as was Isaac. At that time the son who was born in the usual way persecuted the one who was born by the power of the Spirit. So it is now. But what is it that scripture says? “Get rid of the servant girl and her son for that child is not to share in the inheritance that goes to the son of the free-born woman. So then, dear friends, you and I are not children of Hagar, but children of Sarah, free in Christ, not bound by law.

Chapter 5

Christ set us free so we could live totally free from the law! So stand firm in your freedom and don’t let the law burden you again with its heavy yoke.

Listen carefully! I, Paul, tell you that if you allow yourselves to be circumcised it will send the message that Christ alone is not enough. Furthermore, I say to every man, that if you agree to circumcision in order to earn God’s favor you will be obliged to keep the entire law. If you are trying to make yourself right with God by obeying the law you have separated yourselves from Christ; you are no longer trusting God’s gracious gift. But we who live by the Spirit are eagerly waiting to receive by faith the righteousness that God has promised. Once you belong to Christ Jesus it simply doesn’t matter whether you are circumcised or not—the crucial thing is your faith expressing itself in acts of love.

You were running a good race! Who forced you off course so you no longer obey the truth? It certainly wasn’t God, for he was the one who put you in the race. Your leaving the track will affect others because, as the saying goes, “A pinch of yeast leavens the whole lump!” Yet, our oneness in the Lord makes me confident that you will see the error of this false teaching and that the one who’s responsible for the confusion, whoever he is, will pay the penalty God has in store for him. Dear friends, if I were still preaching circumcision as a requirement for becoming a Christian—and that’s what some say I’m teaching—then why would they be persecuting me? In that case, any mention of the cross would offend no one. I wish that those who are upsetting you with their demand for circumcision would go all the way and castrate themselves!

Dear friends, you have been called to freedom—to live apart from petty rules. But freedom doesn’t permit you to indulge your sinful appetites but to serve one another in love. The one command, “Love your neighbor as you love yourself,” fulfills every requirement of the Mosaic law. But if you keep on biting at and devouring one another, soon you will have completely destroyed the other.

Here’s a better way: Let God’s Spirit control the way you live. Then your sinful nature will no longer be able to do whatever it wants. The desires of the sinful nature run counter to the Spirit and the desires of the Spirit run counter to the sinful nature. That these two are diametrically opposed keeps you from doing what you want to do. But if you are lead by the Spirit you no longer have any obligation to the Law of Moses.

When human nature is in control you can be sure that there will be sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, witchcraft and idolatry. People will quarrel, fight, and be jealous. There will be fits of anger, selfish rivalries, divisions, heresies, envy, drunkenness, and wild parties. Once again I warn you that people who behave like that will not inherit the kingdom of God.

By way of contrast, when the Spirit is in control there will be love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law can’t produce, nor can it prohibit, such virtues. People who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified their sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since it was the Spirit who gave us life in the first place, let’s allow that same Spirit to control how we now live. Get over your conceit. Stop provoking others or being envious of one another.

Chapter 6

Dear friends, if one of you is caught doing something that is wrong, then you who are led by the Spirit are to gently guide that person back onto the right path. However, be very careful because you may find yourself drawn into the same sin. Help one another through difficult times for that is what it means to fulfill the law of Christ. If you think you’re too important for that, and believe me you’re not, you’re deceiving no one but yourself. Each one of you should check on how well you are carrying out the responsibilities of love. Then you can enjoy the satisfaction of serving others with no need to compare it with what others are doing. Every one of us is to do whatever is ours to do. Those of you who are learning how to live the Christian life are to share with your teachers from your store of material things.

Don’t be deceived: God will not be mocked. You will inevitably reap exactly what you’ve planted. Plant the seed of selfish desire and you’ll reap the corruption that comes from it. Plant that which pleases the Spirit and from the Spirit you’ll reap eternal life. Don’t grow weary of doing what’s right for if we don’t give up it’s only a matter of time until we’ll reap the harvest. So every time we have the chance, let’s do what is good for everyone, especially for those who belong to the family of faith.

Notice how large the letters are when I do my own writing.

People who insist that one must be circumcised are simply trying to gain favorable standing in the Jewish-Christian community. They don’t want to be persecuted for teaching that salvation is by faith alone. Even those who insist on circumcision don’t keep the law perfectly. They want you to be circumcised so they will have something to brag about. May I never brag about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of the cross, the world has died to me; I have been separated from it by death. Whether or not a person is circumcised is beside the point. The only thing that matters is whether we have become new creations in Christ. May the peace and mercy of God be on all who have chosen to live this way. They are the authentic people of God.

From now on let no one trouble me with issues like this. The scars on my body prove I belong to Jesus.

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen!