"On every page of the God-breathed writings are many thoughts that stretch out like long, clear arms of light across the darkness, discovering things otherwise hidden and illuminating wider areas than those of the immediate context. They are searchlights. I have selected one in each chapter of Scripture, for at least one central thought in every chapter should arrest the mind and affect the life," wrote G. Campbell Morgan, a skilled, wise, warm-hearted Bible teacher who conducted a classic 3-year study called Life Applications from Every Chapter of the Bible. Here is the fruit of that research—summarized, illustrated, and amplified with useful details—on all 66 books of the Bible.
DEUTERONOMY, JOSHUA, JUDGES, RUTH,
1 JOHN, 2 JOHN, 3 JOHN, JUDE, REVELATION
Galatians 1:16 "To reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him." The apostle Paul gives fascinating background information about his calling that is revealed only here in his letter to the Galatians. They were the people he ministered to on his first missionary journey, and also visited on his second and third journeys, so Paul and the Galatians had significant ties to one another. He writes to correct a serious problem, which obliges him explain the inspiration of his preaching and the authority of the Gospel he proclaimed. The risen Christ from heaven uniquely called Paul to faith in Himself and to apostleship, literally turning Paul's life around. He went from persecutor of Christians to proclaimer of Christ's Gospel throughout the known world. Christ personally discipled Paul for 3 years before Paul's main time of service, and the other apostles affirmed Paul's teaching. God used this time of divine revelation in Paul's life to help him preach effectively. A person who knows much about Christ may talk about Him, but a person who knows Him can preach Him. That is the secret of preaching. The words God inspired Paul and the other apostles to write about the Lord Jesus Christ help us to know Him today.
Galatians 2:21 "If righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly!" Galatians has been rightly described as an explosive letter. Its force lies most in the truths it declares, but also in the powerful way they are stated. Here Paul hammers away at the main problem addressed in Galatians: the wrong idea that justification, being declared righteous by God, comes through human effort at Law keeping rather than by faith in the righteousness the Lord Jesus Christ purchased for His people on the cross. False teachers then and now who proudly hold that a person may earn righteousness through the Law are compelled, when pressed by logic, either to deny the atoning death of the Lord or to say God was mistaken, both of which contradict Isaiah 53 and other Scriptures. It is because His Law could not make sinful men and women righteous that our merciful triune God provided a way of salvation for His people through the Son of God taking on human flesh, perfectly obeying the Law, and paying the just penalty for our sins on the cross. That inaugurated the New Covenant, which enables His people by His Spirit to obey God's Law from the heart. This truth must be humbly embraced by faith in Christ alone.
Galatians 3:3 "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?" With these questions Paul applies the saving truth he just affirmed to practical Christian living. If we embrace the biblical logic that righteousness comes only through faith in Christ alone, to avoid foolishness we must see the good sense that we cannot experience increasing personal holiness by relying on methods that could never confer righteousness. Sanctification necessarily involves a battle with one's fallen nature in this life (what Paul calls "the flesh" here), but through the power of the Holy Spirit within, a Christian can have victory over the flesh and be progressively changed into the likeness of Christ. God's Law, Paul goes on to explain in this chapter, shows us our need for a Savior; that is the first of three uses of God's Law. The Pilgrim's Progress famously likens that first use of the Law to a man with a broom in a stuffy room, stirring up the dust to make one choke. It takes the clean water of the Gospel to cleanse the room with ease, and the Holy Spirit of God to enable believers to benefit from the third use of the Law, which is guiding them into the good works God has planned for them. As Paul wrote elsewhere about justification and sanctification, "By grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them."
Galatians 4:19 "My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!" Here suddenly amid the anger, satire, and severity of this letter the heart of its author shines through. There we find tenderness, compassion, and love. Paul was angry, but why? Because the danger threatening these Christians jeopardized the highest and best things in their lives. Paul was satirical, but why? Because such a method was likely to arouse them from the false sense of security coming from superficial rituals replacing faith and trust in Christ. Paul was severe, but why? Because the practices they were pursuing under false teachers undermined their life and growth in Christ. All the anger, satire, and severity resulted from a love as fierce as that of a mother for her children's wellbeing. As Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, the one next to Galatians in the New Testament, "The daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches" (11:28) was his most significant concern. That kind of love for the spiritual welfare of others is to govern our defense of the truth. Here is the primary truth Paul proclaimed: "Christ in you [is] the hope of glory. Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all His energy that He powerfully works within me."
Galatians 5:14 "The whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'" The Law is the revelation of God's way of life for humankind. In it are many words dealing with every significant phase of human life—personal, social, and religious. They cover all its relationships—political, economic, and family. They prescribe attitudes and activities regarding food, clothing, lodging, health, and sanitation. They arrange its worship, make its calendar, and define its responsibilities from cradle to grave. Behind all those words are ten: the Ten Commandments. They, in a sense, gather up all the other words and express them so perfectly in broad and general statements, that if people lived according to them personally and socially, they would taste the Kingdom of God. Paul knew that well, but here he reduces the ten words to one: love. He is saying what the Lord Jesus said before him, but here he takes for granted the first activity of love, which is Godward, and names only the resultant one, which is manward. Those who love God by His grace through Christ will, by His Spirit, love others as themselves when they submit to His leading. Paul devotes the rest of this chapter and part of the next to the work of the Holy Spirit in producing the types of fruit that reflect God's nature in His people.
Galatians 6:17 "From now on let no one trouble me, for I bear on my body the brand-marks of Jesus." Those words display a touch of independence, as if Paul were claiming exemption from interference—like if anyone broke in on his peace and quiet, the intruder would be guilty of a misdemeanor. After reading this letter with its clear logic and pure passion for the Gospel, we know he has won the right to write like this. Yet it is not upon that ground that Paul bases his claim. His ground is the wounds on his body, much like those of a slave, which were in a sense branded on him because of his association with Christ. Some have interpreted Paul's words in a mystical sense, thinking that the stigmata or 5 physical wounds Christ received on the cross, somehow appeared on Paul's body, but that is not what the historical records of the New Testament reveal. For example, Paul provided a numbered list of the many wounds he received in Christ's service. He had been repeatedly bruised and broken by the brutality of those who had opposed him. He carried actual scars from that, but they were precious signs of his love for the Lord Jesus and faithfulness to His Gospel. Paul was probably the inspiration for Mr. Valiant-for-truth in The Pilgrim's Progress, who says, "I am going to my Father's House, and though with great difficulty I have reached this point, yet now I do not repent of all the trouble I have been through to arrive where I am. My sword I give to him who shall succeed me in my pilgrimage, and my courage and skill to him who can get it. My marks and scars I carry with me to be a witness that I have fought the battles of Him who now will be my Rewarder." What marks do we bear to show our love for our King?
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