In the News ... "Paul rebukes Galatians’ backsliding"

Painting by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

• Apostle reveals that stigmata had appeared on his body

By Bob Campbell, Reporter
• Odessa American

MIDLAND/ODESSA, TEXAS - The Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians was a pointed criticism of those new Christians because he had learned that they were still observing the old law rather than the precepts of Jesus Christ.

Ministers Greg Fleming and Kathryn Almendarez say Galatia was the area around what is now Ankara and Eskisehir in west-central Turkey.

“Paul’s letter defends his initial message of the good news of Christ’s grace as opposed to a confused and twisted message that is ‘no good news at all,’” said Fleming, minister of Downtown Church of Christ in Midland. “He notes that he speaks a message revealed by God, not humans, in Galatians 1:11-12, 16 and 2:2.

“Trust in Jesus Christ, rather than observing the law, sets one right with God.”

Fleming said Paul called the Galatians to the selfless giving exemplified by the cross that Jesus was crucified on.

“He fears that he may have ‘wasted his efforts’ on them and thus is anxious to see that ‘Christ is formed’ in them,” he said. “Paul calls them to ethics tied to the promise of the Spirit and the ‘love command’ that sums up ‘the entire law.’”

Fleming said Paul was teaching that the elements of the cross, the Holy Spirit and love come together for the Spirit to produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control in the lives of disciples who ‘crucify’ the flesh.

“This ancient document continues to call disciples to live by the ‘way of the cross’ and in the ‘new creation’ initiated by Christ, which leads to lives of ‘peace and mercy’ in 6:14-16,” he said.

At the end of the book in Galatians 6:17, Paul reveals that the wounds of Jesus, or “stigmata,” had appeared on his hands, feet and side. “Finally, let no one cause me trouble for I bear on my body the marks of Jesus,” he writes.

The Rev. Almendarez, co-pastor of the Open Door Church, said Galatia was part of the Roman Empire. “The Book of Galatians documents Paul’s letter to the church in which he chose to correct some theology that was being preached in the area,” Almendarez said. “Paul presents his position and doctrine that justification before God comes by the grace of God and by faith in the work of Christ alone. Being declared guiltless before God and becoming a member of God’s covenant community of faith requires no other work, nor does it require adherence to the law of Moses for salvation.

“Relying upon religious observance instead of faith in an attempt to earn salvation was the theology that Paul was determined to correct.

Faith is an action word. It is living one’s life in constant submission to Christ and in relationship with him.”

Citing Genesis 15:6, Almendarez said, Paul reminded the Galatians that Abraham’s reliance on what God told him was credited to him as righteousness ...

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