Galatians (Program #31) – The Brands of Jesus and the Grace of Christ

The marvelous book of Galatians contains some of the most encouraging and positive utterances in the New Testament. “When it pleased God to reveal His Son in me. “And, if we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit.” Yet, there’s an unmistakable imprint of the cross of Christ running through Galatians as well. It’s a book of grace and faith, and the Spirit of life, all the while not to be missed is the putting to death of the flesh and bearing the brands of Christ. Does this reveal a contradiction or a secret to experiencing Christ in the Christian life? Stay with us for today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #29) – How to Restore the Fallen One

Now, we can sow unto the Spirit and eventually we will reap from the Spirit eternal life. Since we cannot avoid sowing, let’s all learn by the Lord’s grace to sow unto the Spirit.

We are in chapter 6 now, the last chapter of this book of Galatians. At the end of chapter 5, the Apostle Paul gives the charge for all of the believers, to walk by the Spirit. Today in chapter 6, it somewhat continues his charge. But now, it incorporates the matter of sowing and reaping. These two things are not so unrelated. They are intricately related…

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Galatians (Program #28) – Crucifying the Flesh to Walk by the Spirit

To walk in Spirit is to live, move, even have our being according to the Spirit. In essence, it means we live as genuine sons of God, matching our Father in His life and nature. For this, we’ve been saved. And for this, we’ve been positioned in Christ. So what is it that keeps this wonderful sonship from being our day by day practical, real experience?   Don’t miss today’s very helpful and enlightening life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #27) – Walk by the Spirit Not by the Flesh

In a very well-known passage of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul tells us in Galatians 5:16 to walk by the Spirit. Our walk is how we live, how we move, and even how we have our being. It’s a very inclusive term. To meet the spiritual requirement of the New Testament, we need to live, move, and have our being by the Spirit. Practically, what does this mean? This is our focus on today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #22) – The Spirit of Sonship

Galatians 4 is a wonderful chapter, focusing on two divine sendings. God first sent forth His Son. But, not only so, He also sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts. The two sendings in Galatians 4 are our topic on today’s life study of the Bible.

It helps to see the two main points in chapter 3 are number 1, that the Spirit is the blessing of the Gospel, and number 2, that the law is a custodian leading us to Christ, conducting us to Christ, and keeping us for Christ. In this Chapter 4:1-7, we see a continuation. That is, the Spirit of Sonship replacing the custody of the law. So, we need to begin this program by asking, “Do you want the blessing or do you want a custodian?”

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Galatians (Program #21) – Baptized into Christ and Putting on Christ

The thought in this chapter (Galatians 3) is quite deep and the thought is also divine. And, it’s one thing to be in the first couple of chapters with more objective matters, precious but yet rather basic concerning the fundamental truth of the Gospel and being justified by faith through grace and not out of the works of the law. But in chapter 3 and also chapter 4, which is not that much easier than chapter 3, we’re at the heart of this book. And, we’re deep into the experiential aspect of this book.

Let me try to summarize. We have received the Spirit, not by works of law, but by the hearing of faith. By receiving the Spirit, we receive the reality of the blessing God promised to Abraham. Having received the Spirit and having been brought to Christ through the law as a child-conductor, we are now sons of God and true sons of Abraham. We have believed into Christ. We have been baptized into Christ. We have put on Christ. And, by so doing, we have put off all natural distinctions. And, this is all for the carrying out of God’s economy for us to be in Christ and for Christ to be in us, that we may be the corporate expression of Christ.

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Galatians (Program #19) – Faith Replacing Law

The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ brought in a complete change in the way God dealt with men. His desire today is to bring a rich and bountiful supply of His Spirit to all His children. But, how do we receive this supply? Galatians 3:5 says, “He therefore who bountifully supplies to you the Spirit and does works of power among you, does He do it out of the works of law or out of the hearing of faith?” Are we still struggling under the law or are we receiving the Spirit through faith? Stay tuned for today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #16) – The Spirit versus the Flesh

Galatians 3 shows us a striking contrast between the flesh and the Spirit. In chapter 5, this contrast even becomes a warfare. This Spirit wars against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit. This contrast, and even more this warfare, holds tremendous implications for believers of Christ in our own daily walk. Don’t miss today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #14) – Hearing of Faith Versus Works of Law

Galatians 3 presents the Christian with two crucial questions. First, did we receive the Spirit by faith or through law? Then, does God continue to supply the Spirit or by the works of the law? How do we receive the Spirit? And, is the receiving of the Spirit once for all or do we need it continually? Receiving the supply of the Spirit is the focus of today’s life study of the Bible.

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Galatians (Program #13) – Christ and the Spirit

If you’ve been following along with us, you realize that today we’re scheduled to bring you a life study message from the book of Galatians. We really thought we were going to. When we begin work on this particular program, we knew we had a tape of Witness Lee from 1979 that was going to be difficult. But, we thought we’d be able to restore it to a condition that was acceptable to broadcast. But in our final review, we realize the audio quality of that old recording just did not meet our standards. So we’ve decided to bring you instead, a highlight program from the life study of Romans. This program deals with very much the same topic as the Galatians message we were scheduled to bring you. We think you’ll enjoy this.

To find our way out of this experience of Romans 7, we need to see in detail what this experience is. And, I believe this can be a big help to us today. The first thing we need to see is although this is the experience of an unsaved person, nearly all Christians can identify with this chapter. Romans 5 speaks of the truth of being in Adam, where as when we come to Romans 6, we see what the truth is of being in Christ. When we come to Romans 7, what we see is the experience of someone who is in Adam. And, of course Romans 7 describes a very terrible situation that we would like to be delivered from. Eventually when we come to Romans 8 and we will come to Romans 8 in a future broadcast, this shows us the experience of being in Christ. We’re in Christ doctrinally and positionally. But, we want to have the daily experience of being in Christ through the law of the Spirit of life.

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