Galatians (Program #5) – The Formation of Paul’s Apostleship

The New Testament contains many references to the Apostles. We know that Jesus selected 12 of them originally, and one ultimately betrayed Him and was replaced. After Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, Saul of Tarsus was gained by the Lord and became an Apostle. Tradition teaches that the list stops there, but what does the Bible have to say on the subject? And more importantly, what is the pattern that we see in Paul’s life and his apostleship that is relevant to us? Don’t miss today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #4) – The Revelation of God’s Son in Us

As Christians, we may read or even study the Bible. But when we do, what do we come away impressed with? Miracles? Inspiring stories or teachings? The central revelation of the entire Bible is Christ. The Apostle Paul says in Galatians that it pleased God to reveal His Son in me. Do you see this wonderful Christ throughout God’s Word? Please stay with us as we focus on the revelation of God’s Son in us on today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #2) – The Apostle’s Gospel

The New Testament reveals the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In fact the first 4 books of the New Testament are called the Gospels. Each one is unique in its focus and what it unveils regarding our wonderful Lord Jesus. But the New Testament also reveals the Gospel through the writings of the Apostle Paul. And, it’s this 5th Gospel that we come to today particularly in the book of Galatians.

We need 4 different versions of the Gospel because Christ is such a wonderful person. And, the 4 Gospels are just unveiling this most wonderful person from the angle of His being a king, the angle of His being a servant or a slave, from the angle of His being the most precious man ever revealed in the universe, and also being the Son of God who gives us Himself as the eternal life.

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2 Corinthians (Program #38) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (11)

2 Corinthians is a marvelous book giving us both a detailed biography of the apostle Paul and a clear understanding of the goal of the New Testament ministry.  The goal as we have seen is for the believers and unbelievers alike to be fully reconciled to God.  That means that both in fact and in our experience, there is no barrier, no hindrance, nothing separating us from enjoying God and living Christ.  This is the ministry that Paul and the other apostles were commissioned with.  Further, it should be the goal of our own Christian life.  We have been saved many years ago, having settled that question of our eternal destiny once for all.  But do we live a life that’s fully reconciled to God?  This was Paul’s question to the believers in Corinth as well.   Listen 5:20 of  2 Corinthians say:

“On behalf of Christ then we are ambassadors, as God entreats you through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, Be reconciled to God.“

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2 Corinthians (Program #34) – A New Creation in Christ Becoming God’s Righteousness (1)

By the end of chapter 4 in 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul was very matured in the Christian life. His being has been largely transformed to the extend that regardless of his outward circumstances he remained in the peace and rest of the Lord’s presence. Realizing that through the Spirit within him God was working through all things to form him and shape him according to His eternal plan.

Listen to his testimony in verse 16 and 17,  “Therefore we do not lose heart; but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For our momentary lightness of affliction works out for us, more and more surpassingly, an eternal weight of glory,”

Surely this is the testimony of one who is longing to meet the Lord. Yet one thing remain in Paul’s spiritual journey is, as we will see in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, his longing to have his earthly body or tabernacle replaced with a heavenly one.

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2 Corinthians (Program #32) – The Putting to Death of Jesus and the Renewing of the Inward Man (1 & 2)

The putting to death of Jesus and the renewing of the inward man, these are phrases from the apostle Paul that are found in 2 Corinthians chapter 4. We are continuing today with our life study of 2 Corinthians. And we are dealing with a very experiential chapter.

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2 Corinthians (Program #24) – The Essence of the New Covenant Ministry (1)

The apostle Paul’s writings in the New Testament are rich with the use of metaphors. He frequently used metaphors to help convey the deep and profound meaning of the highest spiritual truths contain in scriptures.

Two such metaphors are found in 2 Corinthians chapter 3. In this chapter we, the believers are first liken to letters, letters of Christ been written or inscribed by the apostles with the Holy Spirit as the ink. How about that?

Later in chapter 3 we become mirrors that both behold and reflect the glory of the Lord. Metaphors like these inspired by the Spirit Himself do help unlock the unsearchable riches of Christ both in our experience and in the working out of God’s great plan, a full salvation.

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2 Corinthians (Program #17) – Attached, Anointed, Sealed, Captured, Subdued, and Led to Scatter the Incense of Christ

In one short passage in 2 Corinthians chapter two, the apostle Paul uses two striking metaphors that give us a marvelous insight into his understanding of the Christina life, his service to the Lord and what it means to be a pattern to the believers.

14 “But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in the Christ and manifests the savor of the knowledge of Him through us in every place.”

15 “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God in those who are being saved and in those who are perishing:”

The first metaphor that of a possession, of captured folks. We, who were previously God’s enemy are been captured and subdued by Him and now are following His victorious possession willingly.

The second metaphor is that of incense bearer, those who accompany such a possession, scattering the sweat fragrance of Christ. A fragrance that affects all who come in contact with it. May we all be such one, captured, subdued and led by Him and now those who even scatter His very fragrance.

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2 Corinthians (Program #16) – A Pattern of Living Christ for the Church

The apostle Paul’s two epistles or letters to the Church in Corinth are definitely related. But if we read carefully we can see that really they are in two different realms.

The first letter dealt with many major problems in the Church. Problems that are in many ways still plague the Church today. The solution that Paul presents in 1 Corinthians is for the believers to live Christ for the church. And this is the link to the other realm that is clearly presented in 2 Corinthians. For in this book more than any other in the Bible, we see the pattern of person living Christ for the church not merely spoken of but demonstrated. The apostle Paul and even other apostles with him really lived this pattern.

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2 Corinthians (Program #14) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (7a)

The apostle Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians chapter 5 that he and the other apostles had received a ministry or reconciliation. To reconcile one person to another is to restore the offending party to the offended party.

Of course in our case we all had offended God and the moment that we believed into Christ, receiving His work on the cross for us, we were brought nigh to Him and experience the first step or first level of reconciliation.

But actually 2 Corinthians reveals that there is a further step, a second level or degree of reconciliation. And that only someone fully in God can have such a ministry to reconcile others fully into God. This is the ministry of reconciliation that Paul was commissioned with.

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