Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson L)

Wayne C. Aman (1918-1995), Christian writer and researcher, in writing about the Apostle Paul’s commitment to always proclaiming that his old sinful nature hung crucified with the Anointed One, so that any sinful tendencies in him might be destroyed, now says he showed no interest in serving the interests and desires of those tendencies that made him a sinner. Just like when someone dies they are no longer bound to any oaths or contracts they made, so it is that his being dead to sin meant he no longer was obligated under sin’s reign.[1] Furthermore, what the Law was unable to do because it was weak when it came to controlling mankind’s carnal desires, God sent His only Son to live in a human body so He could conquer those sinful tendencies so that all who believed He now possessed all power over such tendencies could be made right with God based solely on the work of the Anointed One.[2] Then they really understand what Paul says here in verse twenty about being made alive again in the Anointed One. However, it wasn’t by virtue of any life in them, but because the Spirit of the Anointed One made them alive. So even though they still lived in the same old natural body, by the power of the Anointed One they were in charge, not their body. Now they did what the Anointed One wanted them to do, not what their carnal desires might tell them to do.

Now, all if this was only made possible by the Son of God, who loved them and gave Himself for them that they could receive a new life. Not a new body, that would come later. Therefore, the sanctified life they now lived, they lived by their faith in what the Son of God did for them. And since Jesus willingly suffered and died to be a sacrifice for them so that His blood would cover their sins from God’s eyes, they must now willingly live for him, and if necessary, die for Him and His cause. How glorious is the provision, says Aman! This gives more meaning to what Jesus said about His body – the Church. So, when we are asked to take and eat the communion wafer, we are confirming that the life we live is because of Him – He is part of us.

O yes, death is coming, but by faith, we face it knowing there will be a glorious resurrection. That’s why we say with the Apostle “I died in the Anointed One but the life I now live is a glorious, resurrected life. I live by the faith of my Savior and Sanctifier Jesus the Anointed One.”[3] The wonderful fact that the sin principle is destroyed in all that die to sin and self, belief in the accomplished provision of Jesus, is clear in the teaching of the Word.[4] The water that is used in baptism not only means that a person died and is buried as far as sin is concerned but that it also represents the blood of the Lamb of God that cleanses sin’s stains and serves as an antidote to the poison of sin. So, we imply that when we come up out of the water it represents our being born again but also our being sanctified by His blood. But that is not all, now that person’s life must show that all of this took place. All that remains is for the infilling of the Holy Spirit for service.

And Duncan Hester feels that Paul is using the same language of baptism here in verse nineteen that he would later use with the Romans.[5] So baptism became his burial after he died to the Law. Just like someone is put in a grave, so also Paul was put into a watery grave. But just as Jesus was raised from the dead, so Paul was raised to new life by the power of the Anointed One. So, his relationship with the Law is over, just like when one spouse dies and is buried, their relationship with the other spouse is over. If they want to, they may remarry. And that’s what Paul did, he was married to the Anointed One in spirit. Then in verse twenty, Paul makes another reference to his baptism. But this time it is post-baptism, and it involves the fact that a co-crucifixion occurred – the Anointed One and Paul. Hester says that the word, co-crucifixion, is used about the thieves being crucified with Jesus.[6] The unrepentant thief represents those who refuse to accept the Anointed One as their Savior. But the repentant thief is a type of us all. And the promise to the repentant thief that he would be with Jesus in paradise following his death, is also the same promise to us.[7]

In their exposition of Galatians, David Platt and Tony Merida share a quote from Puritan William Perkins (1558-1602), who died nine years before the King James Version Bible was published, on his thoughts of what is being said in verse nineteen. The quote goes: “We are to consider in our mind and meditation that the Anointed One was crucified. First, we are to believe that He was crucified for us. This being done, we must go yet further, and spread our arms on the cross of the Anointed One, believing and see ourselves being crucified with Him.” In the original book published for Perkins, he then adds, “You might say, this is a difficult matter, I cannot do it. But I say again, that this is the right practice of faith: strive, therefore, to be settled in this, that the body of sin is crucified with the Anointed One.”[8] So what does this imply once we die to sin when we are co-crucified with the Anointed One? It means that the penalty, power, and preeminence of sin was broken unable to condemn our souls to timeless separation from God. Its effect in the past was covered by the blood of the Lamb, its influence in the present is erasable by God’s grace, and its potential outcome in the future is already paid for by the Anointed One. If we sin, God doesn’t say, “You are not justified anymore.” No, your justification is sealed; you died to sin. God’s declaration is final.[9]

Ralph Martin and William Lane conclude that Paul is laying down a new basis for the divine-human relationship. The old-self is condemned and put on the cross as a criminal. However, there is no canceling of one’s personality, no call to self-denial and self-punishment. The dying of self is an invitation to glorious new possibilities of a life in a union by faith with a Living Lord who now controls the believer and who lives the Anointed One’s resurrection life.[10] Only from the vantage point of this “dead to self – alive to God” experience does the cross we carry shine in its true light. Only as sinners throw themselves on the mercy of God shown on the cross as the sole ground of their hope does the cross assume its real importance, for if there is any merit in human achievement – if there is any second way to God by some side-door entrance into God’s awesome presence – then the Anointed One died for no purpose. In other words, He died for nothing.[11] [12]

Current Bible commentator Robert Gundry sees it this way: “Being in the Anointed One provides a location for the sought-after justification because from God’s point of view, believing in the Anointed One puts believers in union with the Anointed One, the object of their belief.”  He goes on to say: “Believing in the Anointed One brings the gift of His Spirit so that through the Spirit that indwells him believers too indwell Him.”[13]  Therefore, there is no justification for God to forgive us of sin outside the Anointed One, because the Law did not pay the price for redemption, nor did we pay through good works, only the Anointed One did. That’s why any Judaizers in Galatian who claimed that by forsaking the Law in favor of the Anointed One meant they were being led into sin against the Law were wrong. Paul’s response was to point out that since the Anointed One tore down all the works of the Law (see this in light of the veil in the Temple being torn in two) so that His work on the cross could take its place, by re-instituting the Law they were rebuilding what the Anointed One tore down, and sowing the veil back together again, would not only be foolish, but a rejection of what the Anointed One did on the cross.[14]

Don Garlington explains it in a very colorful way. “Because of the death-blow administered by the Law” after its laws were broken, Paul became convinced that the Torah could not bring him back to life once he paid the death penalty for his sins with his own life. He knew this was his destiny even while trying to be a faithful Pharisee because there was no way he could be the righteous person he needed to be in order to qualify for life in the world-to-come. Garlington is convinced that the words of David came crashing in upon him: “Don’t bring your servant to trial since in Your sight no one alive would be considered righteous.”[15] At this point in time, Paul became profoundly aware that his righteousness must come from none other than the Son of God, who loved him and gave Himself for him. This was something the Law could not do.[16]

I agree with Paul, to make the Torah any part of what it means to be a born again Christian and live for the Anointed One, is rebuilding the old wall of separation that the Anointed One tore down so that all who believe in Him are one with Him. Listen to what Paul told the believers in Ephesus: But now you are in union with the Anointed One, Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you are near to Him through the blood of the Anointed One. For the Anointed One Himself brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one fellowship when, in His own body on the cross, He broke down the wall of hostility that separated them. He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in Himself one new community from the two groups. Together as one body, the Anointed One reconciled both groups to God by means of His death on the cross, and their hostility toward each other was put to death. He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from Him, and peace to the Jews who were near. Now all of can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what the Anointed One did for us.[17]

Since the new birth is so much a part of salvation in the Anointed One, it allows the use of an illustration to help us understand Paul’s somewhat complex thinking. From the moment of conception, the fetus depends on the umbilical cord and the mother’s intake of nutrition to stay alive.  But the day comes when the baby leaves the womb, and the umbilical cord is cut in order to live in the outside world. So, the child then says, “By leaving the womb, I’m rejecting the womb as my permanent home in order for me to exist in the environment outside.”   Yes, the womb gave the baby an environment in which to be conceived and grow, but its destiny was not to remain there into adulthood. And what child would ever wish to go back into the womb and live in a bag of water again, especially after their first Christmas? That’s not possible anymore. Now that the child breaths air, they would be unable to survive by returning to the womb. No wonder Nicodemus was somewhat taken aback when Jesus told him that in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven he needed to be born again, and he thought that meant he needed to return to the womb.

[1] See Romans 6:6-7

[2] Ibid. 8:3-4

[3] This is Wayne C. Aman’s paraphrase of Galatians 2:20

[4] Wayne C. Aman: The Cross and Crown of Holiness, Books for the Ages, 1997, p. 15

[5] See Romans 6

[6] Luke 23:42

[7] Heaster, Duncan: European New Testament Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Kindle Locations 544-596

[8] The Works of That Famous and Worthy Minister of the Anointed One in the University of Cambridge, Mr. William Perkins, Printed by John Legatt, London, 1631, Vol. II, p. 215

[9] Platt, David; Merida, Tony.  Galatians, op. cit., p. 49

[10] See Galatians 2:20

[11] Ibid. 6:21

[12] Martin, Ralph P.; Lane, William L.; Morris, Leon. The Shorter Letters of Paul: Galatians to Philemon (Open Your Bible Commentary, New Testament Book 8) (Kindle Locations 562-566). Creative 4 International. Kindle Edition.

[13] See Galatians 3:2; 4:6; Romans 8:1-17

[14] Robert Gundry: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., Kindle Locations 465-492

[15] Psalm 143:2 – Complete Jewish Bible

[16] Don Garlington: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 85

[17] Ephesians 2:13-18 – Complete Jewish Bible

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLIX)

Lancaster goes on to explain why this interpretation does not work for Messianic Jews. He quotes what Paul says in Acts 25:8[1] and 28:17,[2] as evidence that Paul did not reject the Torah or Judaism. Speaking again of logic, these are two conditional statements that are only applicable to Paul remaining a Jew if the premise is in harmony with his conclusion. In both cases, Lancaster would be considered in error according to the rules of logic. In his mind, Paul remained obedient to the Torah – observant all his life; a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee, a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Jew, under the full obligation of the Law, despite the fact that he considered himself an Apostle to the Gentiles. If what Lancaster says here is supposedly true, then why did Paul not continue to persecute the congregation that dispensed with the Torah and leaned totally on the work of the Anointed One for their salvation. And why did Paul say to the Romans: “For I am not ashamed of the Good News since it is God’s powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile. For in it is revealed how God makes people righteous in His sight; and from beginning to end it is through trust — as the Jewish Tanakh (Jewish Bible) puts it, “The person who is righteous will live his life by trust – that is faith.”[3]

For Messianic Jewish believer David Stern, when Paul said in verse nineteen that through the Law he died to the law it should be understood this way: “Through the Torah, I died to legalism.” One Jewish translation renders it thus: “Through letting the Torah speak for itself that I died to its traditional legalistic misinterpretation.”[4] Stern goes on to say that this then allowed Paul to say that instead of being shut off from God by legalistic misinterpretation of the Torah, he got closer to God through faith and grace. Before, Paul wasn’t spiritually alive because the Law held no such power, but now he is alive in the Anointed One who is the full embodiment of the Law. So why should he try to meet the Law’s demands when the Anointed One already did so?

Stern also adds some additional color to Paul statement about being crucified with the Anointed One. He says that when the Anointed One was crucified as a criminal, he too was crucified with him as a criminal, a law-breaker. So it is no longer his proud Pharisaic ego that is the driving force in his life to be right with God, it is the driving force of the Anointed One’s Spirit that enables him to serve God out of love not an obligation; by faith, not works. By doing so, he lived in harmony with the trusting faithfulness of the Son of God, the Messiah, because He loved Paul and gave Himself up to be sacrificed for Paul so that Paul might receive everlasting life.[5]

Another Jewish writer, Adriaan Liebenberg, also takes issue with those who say that the Torah died to Paul.  As Liebenberg sees it, it does NOT say the Law is dead to us! There is a huge difference. If we are dead to the Law then we fulfilled the requirement that the law demands: our death. The Law demands that we die because at some point in our life we broke that Law. When we received Yeshua as Savior, WE become “dead to the Law” because we were crucified with Messiah who was dying because we broke the Law, not Him. That allowed God to raise us back up from our deadness to the Torah so that we could live for Elohiym.

Liebenberg then points out that when Paul goes on to say that he now lives with the Anointed One dwelling in him, he is actually saying that we walk as the Anointed One walked. He kept the Torah to absolute perfection! Because He kept the Torah as the only righteous One, then through Him we also keep the Torah and because God declared us as righteous in Him. This is the basis for our justification. Oh yes, from time to time we still let our sinful tendencies get the best of us. But now the Anointed One does through grace what the Torah could not do and forgives us and wipes away those stains of unrighteousness that sin left on our souls. Do not let anyone declare that they are righteous, but rather, that the Anointed One is their righteousness.[6]

Jewish writer Avi Ben Mordechai says that for the most part, what Paul said about dying to the law is being misinterpreted. They take what Paul says back in verse eighteen to mean that Paul used to keep the Torah before coming to “the Anointed One,” but because the Law points to “the Anointed One,” it, therefore, means that Paul should never attempt to rebuild a path back to the Torah to keep from denying the Anointed One and falling from grace and become a transgressor of the freedom from the Law of Moses that God gives through the Anointed One because Paul realized that the Torah was completely fulfilled in the Anointed One. So what Paul is really saying is that because the Anointed One took care of the demands of the Torah, and with the Anointed One being in him, he was now able to go on to really live for God and not become bogged down in a Law that was already fulfilled.[7]

Another Messianic writer says that at first blush verse nineteen seems to spell the end of any Torah relevance for the Apostle Paul. But there is more than what is comprehended in the first reading. Paul indicates that prior to his salvation experience, he was blinded of his true condition: dead in trespasses and sin. However, now that the Holy Spirit took up residence within him, via the sacrificial death of Yeshua, he looks back to how the Torah played a big part in bringing him to this newfound revelation about himself. The Torah, working in concert with the Spirit of God, revealed sin for what it was: a violation of God’s high standards for living right. That’s why, through the Torah, – that is, through its proper function of revealing and condemning sin, the individual is brought to the goal of the Torah, namely the revelation of the Messiah Himself. Once faced with the choice to remain in sin or be set free by the power of the blood of the Lamb of God, Paul confesses that he “died” to his old self and was consequently made alive in the newness of life that is gifted to those who choose life over death![8]

Christian Rabbi Avi ben Mordechai helps us see that when we see the word “Christ” in the Scripture, we forget that this is the Greek word for the Hebrew “Messiah” or the “Anointed One.” So, Paul is saying here in verse twenty that he was crucified with the Messiah. This is important because the Messiah came to provide something that no other human could provide. That was the sacrifice in payment for all the sins committed against Yahweh by the House of Israel,[9] as “atonement” or “ransom,”[10] along with all the sins committed by the rest of humanity. That’s why Yahweh sent Yeshua[11] to take upon Himself the death sentence that was adjudicated by Heaven’s High Court.[12] All of this was outlined as a curse upon humanity,[13] and spelled out in the Torah.[14] So it is clear that if Paul ripped out any reference to Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross and reinserted the required animal sacrifices of Leviticus, he would certainly be frustrating the grace of God.[15]

The Jewish New Testament renders verses 19-20 in such a way that appears as though Paul was saying that it was the Law that put him to death, and it did so that he might be able to live for God. And this was done because the Anointed One included Paul when He was crucified on the cross.[16] So the old Saul is dead and, in his place, a new Paul is living through the life-giving power of the Anointed One’s Spirit. And the only reason Paul is still alive is because of his faith in the Son of God keeps him alive.[17] The Son of God who came to earth and gave himself for him because He loved him.[18]

In Andrew Roth’s translation of the text from the original Aramaic version, it sure does seem that Paul gave credit to the Torah for his transformation from being spiritually dead to spiritually alive: “For by the Torah I am dead, that I might live for Elohiym.” In the footnotes, we read that Roth shares that Rabbi Simon Altaf in his Nazarene Hebraic Study Scriptures translates this verse nineteen as “For I through the human law am dead to the human law, that I might live to Elohiym.” Then in his own footnote, Rabbi Altaf notes Paul was referring to sure death by living in the Pharisaical system of commandments and that he now realized the life in Yahweh through His Torah, which was personified in the living Messiah Yeshua. This then allowed Paul to go on and say in verse that although he was crucified with the Messiah, the old Saul no longer lives, but the Messiah lives in him. So, he gives all credit for his new life to the Son of Elohiym, Yeshua, who love him and give His life for him so that he could receive a new life.[19]

The Contextual Bible paraphrases these two verses this way that adds even more depth: “For it was through the Law of God that I came to realize my impotence, that I could never keep God’s Law in my human strength, and thus be guiltless and righteous before God. It condemned me to my death and when my death penalty was paid by the Anointed One, dying in my place, the Law released me from its condemnation and authority. Released from its power, I am now under God’s power, infused with His life-giving spirit, and, therefore, alive and enabled to live up to His will for me. I have been nailed to the torture stake with the Anointed One, my “self” has been put to death: now it is not me that is living, but the Anointed One is living in me, taking care of all of God’s requirements for me. Indeed, the life that I now live, with its power to live up to God’s will for me, is a result of my complete and absolute surrender to the Son of God, who loved me and gave His life for me, and not a result of my own conscientious efforts to live by God’s Law.”[20]

[1] “I’ve done nothing wrong against the Jewish law, against the Temple, or against Caesar.”

[2] “My brothers, I’ve done nothing against our people or against the customs of our fathers.

[3] Romans 1:16-17 – Complete Jewish Bible

[4] Complete Jewish Bible, op. cit., loc., cit.

[5] Stern, David H: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Kindle Location 15444-15464

[6] W. Adriaan Liebenberg: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., pp. 44-46

[7] Avi ben Mordechai: Commentary on Galatians, Millennium 7000 Communications

[8] Messianic Commentary: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit.

[9] Jeremiah 3:8

[10] Isaiah 59:16; Exodus 32:30-34

[11] John 7:16

[12] See Galatians 3:13-14

[13] Jeremiah 11:1-8

[14] Deuteronomy, chapters 27-28

[15] Avi ben Mordechai: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 26

[16] See Galatians 5:24; 6:14; cf. Romans 6:5-11; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12

[17] See Romans 8:9-11; 2 Corinthians 13:5; cf. Colossians 1:27

[18] Jewish Annotated New Testament: Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit

[19] Andrew G. Roth: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit.

[20] Aiyer, Ramsey: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Kindle Locations 210-218

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLVIII)

Joseph Beet asks us to notice that here in verse twenty Paul says that it is the crucified Savior who lives in those who share in His crucifixion. By that, we assume that only those whose former lives came to an end on the cross with the Anointed One living in them. That’s because union with Him implies not only union with His life but also with His death.[1] Now, this life that we live in the Anointed One is not something we earned, merited, competed for, or bought. It was a gift from God through His Son Jesus the Anointed One. Certainly, we should appreciate so valuable a gift as not lose it or let it sit in a closet untouched. As part of this gift of salvation, there is another gift called “timeless life”. Who would throw that away? But very few are going to believe that we possess such a gift unless they see the Anointed One living in us. To love and serve Him in such a way that His grandeur is revealed in all its beauty through the Gifts of the Spirit. This should be enough to cause those who are just like we used to be to notice and want to find the same joy and peace we enjoy in the Anointed One we enjoy now.[2]

James Denny shares some enlightening thoughts about Paul’s statement here in verse nineteen about how letting go of the Torah and dying to its empty promises of salvation and timeless life allowed him to reach out to the Anointed One so he maintained a direct relationship with God. But the source that gave him the power to make this change came with the Anointed One’s death on the cross in which He dealt with sin by putting it to death in Him. More specifically, that His death involved His body in which a person’s sinful nature resides. So, by having faith in His death as being done on our behalf, that faith then gives us the power to say “No” to sin. That’s, says Denney, the death involving faith that Paul experienced is repeatedly defined by Paul was his death to the Law. Why the Law? Because the Law was designed to identify sin but could do nothing about forgiveness, it was already lifeless. So why not treat it as a dead thing?[3]

Just like in the Book of Psalms, wisdom and knowledge are expressed in poetry with much more passion than in prose. John Wilbur Chapman (1859-1918), an American Presbyterian evangelist who evangelized across America with noted gospel singer Charles Alexander, expresses his passion on what Paul says here in verse twenty about the joy of being one with the Anointed One this way:

Benjamin Bacon paints a picture to convey that Paul is saying in verse twenty about how the Anointed One loved him and gave Himself up for him. This is the case where a simple story of Jesus, the Friend of Sinners, the traveling prophet who spent His whole life in the small area of Galilee and Judea in Israel, because of His undaunted championship fighting for the right of the outcast class called Gentiles to gain full “sonship” in God’s kingdom. However, it took His crucifixion outside Jerusalem’s walls to lift His efforts to its highest plane. His tragic death is no longer viewed as a local folk story, it is now being played out on the world stage so that “every sinner” may come to know the love of God through the Anointed One. It involves more than Jesus setting His face steadfastly to go up to Jerusalem,[5] assuming a much larger dimension. The Redeemer descended from the highest heaven to the lowest hell in order to conquer all powers and put them under His control. The powers of sin, sickness, hell, death, and the grave are not subject to Him.[6]

Arno Gaebelein reminds us that the principle which governs this new life in the Anointed One is not the Law-principle, but it is a Life-principle lived by faith in the Son of God and what He did on the cross. God gave a purpose to every one of His creations. There would be no reason to exist without one. Therefore, if the Lord Jesus is our life, He is also, personally, our purpose for living, and we live by faith in Him. Our heart sees Him, looks to Him, feeds upon Him, is assured of His love, for He gave Himself for us. What a happy certainty! Blessed assurance! It is a new life, the old self is crucified, dead, and gone. Now the Anointed One, whose perfect love we know, is the sole object of our faith and of our heart.[7]

Cyril Emmet tells us that the idea of a spirit living in a person and taking control of their emotions and actions was not new in Paul’s day. It was already believed in Egypt, Greece, Africa, Asia, and other far-flung places. Especially among those who practiced what is called “mystery” religions.[8] For instance, in 1775 a traveler to Greece named Richard Chandler observed what he described as a “frenzy of rapture” and called it Nympholepsy. It was the rapture supposedly that took hold of a man upon gazing on a nymph. The word “nymph” originates from the Greek word nymphe, meaning “bride.” It was often applied to beautiful young women, then to a “semi-divine being in the form of a beautiful maiden.” It featured seizures such as those seen in epilepsy. According to Socrates, as presented in the writings of Plato, a person could experience nympholepsy without any “tearing of clothes, the biting of lips, or convulsions, or frenzies.” Plato implies in his writings that nympholepsy showed itself in others by “heightened awareness and eloquence.” Something similar, but holy, is seen in Pentecostal congregations when the Holy Spirit falls on a believer and they dance, shout, and speak in tongues, even falling under the power of the Spirit.

Arthur W. Pink gives us thought for a great illustration of what Paul is trying to communicate by saying that the Law exercised no more power over him. Pink calls the Gospel, “the Believer’s Emancipation from the Law” signed by God. When American President Abraham Lincoln wanted to free the slaves in the south from any further humiliation as unpaid farm laborers, he signed such an Emancipation Proclamation in 1863. But it wasn’t accepted everywhere. In fact, it resulted in a civil war between the North and the South. Many died trying to defend it and even more died trying to annul it. But in the end, it was made Law. And the good news, when it was all over the slaves were now free to be what God made them be. So it was when Jesus the Anointed One the Son of God came to earth to proclaim the Emancipation Proclamation freeing sinners from the bondage of sin. Yes, there was a war and Jesus gave His life defending it. But in the end, it became God’s Law.[9]

Messianic writer Daniel Lancaster finds trouble with what Paul says here about dispensing with the Torah. From his perspective, most of Christendom the meaning of what Paul says here is self-evident. He distinguishes between his former life as a Jewish Pharisee and his new life as a Jewish Christian. Formerly, he tried to live according to the Torah, for the Torah and keeping the Torah in order to earn salvation. But ultimately, he realized that he could not earn salvation because his sinful tendencies prevented him from meeting the Torah’s impossible standards. So, his choice was to either keep up his futile attempt at salvation by works, or die to the Torah, much like a husband dies to his wife, and become a Christian through new birth. He made the choice to quit trying to keep the Torah and learned to simply live for God by grace through faith without practicing Judaism any longer – that religion of dead and lifeless works. Lancaster hears Paul saying, “I was a Jew, but now I’m a Christian.  I once was under the law, but now I’m under grace.” Lancaster says that from his experience this explanation works for most Christians because for two thousand years the Book of Galatians was read and revered by Christians. However, it does not work for the Messianic Jewish movement.”[10]

[1] See Romans 6:3

[2] Joseph Beet: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., 55-56

[3] James Denny, The Death of the Anointed One, Ch 3, pp. 125-126

[4] J. Wilbur Chapman, Present Day Parables, Oneness with the Anointed One, p. 129

[5] Luke 9:51

[6] Benjamin W. Bacon: On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 70–71

[7]|Arno Gaebelein: On Galatians: op. cit., loc. cit.

[8] Cyril W. Emmet: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 25

[9] Arthur W. Pink: The Law and the Saint, op. cit., p. 19

[10] D. Thomas Lancaster: On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 97-98

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLVII)

Some fifty years after Adam Clarke wrote his commentary, another brilliant British scholar, Andrew Mclaren, preached his non-conformist view of what Paul was saying here. Mclaren sees a bundle of paradoxes in verse twenty. The first paradox is that the Christian life is a dying life. If we are in any real sense in union with the Anointed One, the power of His death makes us dead to self and sin and the world. In the spiritual, as in the physical, death is the gate of life; and, inasmuch as what we die to in the Anointed One is itself only death to bring life. We then live because we died. But we fully live in proportion to how we fully died.

The next paradox is that the Christian life is a life in which the indwelling Spirit of the Anointed One overcomes our old-self so that it may bring to life our new-self. We gain ourselves when we lose ourselves. His abiding in us does not destroy but heightens our individuality. We then most truly live when we say, “It is not I, but the Anointed One lives in me;” and became the soul of my soul and the self of my self.

And the last paradox is that the true Christian life moves in two spheres at once. What we see and what we cannot see. We are still alive in the flesh, but that life is really lived in faith. It belongs not to the material nor is dependent upon the physical body in which we are housed. We are now pilgrims below looking forward to our new life above, and the true region and atmosphere of the Christian life is that invisible sphere of faith.

Mclaren concludes that what we read here in verse twenty is a Christian man’s frank affirmation of the secret of his own life. It is like a geological cutting, it goes down from the surface, where the grass and the flowers are, through the various strata, but it goes deeper than these, to the fiery heart, the flaming nucleus and center of all things. Therefore, it may do us all good to get a sample of our own hearts and see whether the strata there are conformable to those that are here.[1]

J. B. Lightfoot declares that the Law wore on its face the marks of its temporary character. Its prophecies foretold the Anointed One. Its sacrifices and other typical rites foreshadowed the Anointed One. It was, therefore, quite appropriate when the Anointed One met Paul on the road to Damascus and took the Law’s place as his Master.[2] However, the Law was the slave master who kept Saul in bondage whereas the Anointed One was the Master who set Paul free. So now why should Paul live his life any longer in the same mode he lived it under the Law? There is no reason, so he is living his life for the Anointed One’s sake and to His honor out of gratitude for setting him free. This was the example Paul was trying to get the Galatians to follow because they owed the Anointed One the same thanks as Paul did.

Charles Spurgeon commented that Paul here in verse twenty looks at the matter of salvation from the point of view suggested by grace. If any person deserved the right to say, “The Son of God, whom I loved, and to whom I gave myself,” it is the Apostle Paul. On another occasion, speaking of the Lord, he said, “Whose I am, and whom I serve;”[3] but here he thinks not of himself, or of what he was led to do for the Lord, but only of what the Lord did for him. He dug down to the foundation of salvation; he traced the stream of grace back to the fountainhead; and, therefore, he spoke of “the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”

Then Spurgeon recalls a poem that he read but does not remember its source. Nevertheless, it should be very inspiring to all who love their Savior as much as He loves them:

And finally, Spurgeon also comments on verse twenty in one of his meditations. The subject is how often Jesus referred to “love.” We are to love one another even as He loved us.[5]  Paul talks here about how the Son of God loved him so much that He willingly gave up life in His body so that He could live in Paul’s body. That’s why Paul says it wasn’t he who was living now in his flesh, but the Anointed One living in him. So, says Spurgeon, it’s hard to talk of love in order to give it meaning. Love is an act of the will and must be demonstrated in order to prove its existence.

Spurgeon then notes how often our eyes filled with tears when we realized the thought that Jesus loves us! How it affected our spirit with His assurance that He thinks of us and bears us in His heart! But try as we may, we cannot duplicate the same emotion for others, nor give by word of mouth so much as a faint idea of the bliss which lies within the exclamation, “Oh, how He loves me!” Today we sing a similar refrain in the chorus: “Oh, how He loves you and me, Oh, how He loves you and me. He gave his life, what more could He give? Oh, how He loves you; Oh, how He loves me; Oh, how He loves you and me.”

Trying to define love, says Spurgeon, is like describing a vast ocean without being able to see down into its depths. Doesn’t it make you gasp for air knowing that the Son of God should love you so much that He would die so that you could live? It should make us unfold the wings of our spirit in a flame of admiring and adoring gratitude! Spurgeon then breaks out in another song to make his point.

O you angels, cries out Spurgeon, such love as this you never knew! Jesus does not bear your names upon His hands or call you His bride. No! this highest fellowship He reserves for worms whose only return is tearful, hearty thanksgiving and love.[7]

G. W. Gonder of Home Missionary Institute in England (1840-1842) wants us to imagine a person who is living for themselves without any thought of God or any earnest effort to serve or please Him. Living to gratify only their own tastes, passions, desires, and no one else’s. Interested only in their rules, their aspirations, their self-satisfaction, their goals, as their own god. This is not just a caricature, but a true picture of such a person who claims they are living for God. Take a long look at a person such as this. Observe them closely. Here is a person whose whole principle, guideline, motive, aim, and end, is “self.”

But now, let’s look at them again. Only this time as they, emerge, as it were, from the Anointed One’s tomb with the Anointed One, their hand in the Savior’s hand, surrendering to the loving request of the Lord to go with Him to God the Father; to confess their sin, and be forgiven. How completely different is the look on their face! How humbly they follow the Lord instead of the stiff resistance they put up before. How softened is their demeanor compared to their prior look of pride? Certainly, that unyielding spirit of self-absorption must have been cast out of them and left behind him in the empty grave of the Anointed One. It is not the same person. Now it’s God! God’s law! God’s favor! His pardon, His help, and guidance that used to mean nothing to them is now everything to them. If they could, they might be so entranced with their relationship with the Anointed One, they would never dream of departing from Him. Instead, if they could they might stay there forever gazing into their Savior’s eyes, never to look at anything else as long as they live.[8]

[1] Alexander. McLaren’s Commentary (Expositions of Holy Scripture) 32 Books In 1 Volume.: An Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Kindle Location 137468-137482), Kindle Edition.

[2] J. B. Lightfoot: On Galatians, op. cit., p. 245

[3] Acts of the Apostles 27:23

[4] Charles Spurgeon: Sermon # 2370 titled, “the Anointed One First, Me Last: Nothing Between but Love,” Text: Galatians 2:20, Delivered at the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington, England, Thursday evening, May 10, 1888

[5] John 13:34; 15:12

[6] There Is Singing Up in Heaven, by Johnson Oatman (1897). Song was also published in some hymnals as “Holy, Holy, Is What the Angels Sing.”

[7] Charles Spurgeon: Till He Comes, Communion Meditations and Addresses, Fragrant Spices from the Mountains of Myrrh, p. 52

[8] G. W. Gonder: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., The Biblical Illustrator – Vol. 48 – Kindle Locations 5432-5441

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLVI)

Charles Simeon, in one of his discourses, says that the knowledge of the Law is indispensably necessary to the knowledge of the Gospel. Even persons who espouse some views of the Anointed One as a Savior, in general, do not possess an adequate idea of the extent to which they need a Savior. This becomes known only by considering the requirements of the law, and the measure of guilt which we contracted by our violation of the Law. In unfolding to us this subject, the Epistle to the Galatians stands, perhaps, preeminent above all others, not excepting even that to the Romans.

Simeon then points out the use of the Law in relation to the hope a person gets from it; governed by the extent of its commandments; by the relentlessness of its threatenings, and by its incapacity to afford any remedy whatsoever. However, on the other side of the coin, a person may also view the Law from a sense of gratitude; from a sense of duty, and from a sense of interest. This should then motivate a person to understand its nature; to fulfill its purposes, and to honor its requirement. But in the end, none of this will qualify a person to be justified before God as worthy for sins to be forgiven and the sentence of death removed. In that respect, a believer is dead to the Law. All their expectation that the Law might save them through self-righteousness is now abandoned. In its place, a person finds themselves in a better place, standing on the solid ground of hope with blessed assurance by faith in the Anointed One’s obedience to the cross. There was no hope in the Law. As the old hymn goes, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus the Anointed One and righteousness.”[1] [2]

Wesleyan theologian Adam Clarke offers his thoughts on this teaching by Paul about depending on religious rites and rituals for justification. He hears Paul saying that if he was to act like a Jew and force the observance of the Law on the Gentiles, which he repeatedly asserted and proved to be abolished by the death of the Anointed One, then he would rebuild what the Lord destroyed by His sacrifice. This would then make him a transgressor by observing the Law in such a way that it would appear to order the observance of it upon others. Paul made it clear that when it comes to properly consider the nature and requisitions of the law, He would find himself dead to all hope and expectation of help or salvation from the Law, thereby being obliged to take refuge in the Gospel of the Anointed One. Paul’s message was that the Law condemns to death, and he embraced the Gospel that he might be saved from death, and live for God.[3]

James Haldane finds that is a mystery why so many Christians are unaware that a person is not only justified in the Anointed One but sanctified as well. Not by anything they did, it is all the work of God through the Anointed One and the Holy Spirit. That’s why some feel that at any time they could fall back into sin, and the Law would take dominion over them once more. It comes from not being sure how to live a holy life. They were told that they are no longer under the Law when it comes to their justification for being called a child of God, they are now living under grace. That’s why they must now understand that if they do sin, it’s not against the Law but the Grace of God. The Law contained no provisions to forgive such a trespass, but Grace contains not only forgiveness but cleansing from any stain of sin that may still be on their character.[4] As Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, neither do I condemn you.[5] The Anointed One came to save, not to condemn.[6] [7]

Catholic theologian John Haydock from the 19th century gives his view of what Paul says here and it applies to believers in his day.  Paul expresses here the change that was wrought in him. The law to which he was attached passed away. Now he was so united in the Anointed One and His cross, that he says: Not I, but the Anointed One lives in me. The strong expressions made use of by St. Paul with regard to the Jewish law in this chapter, may appear strange, and very capable of a wrong interpretation. But we must always bear in mind that St. Paul speaks exclusively of the ceremonial part of the law, and not of the moral part contained in the Ten Commandments. Of this latter law, Haydock says that in Paul’s epistle to the Romans that the doers of the Law will be justified.[8] But this can only happen when the grace which Jesus the Anointed One merited and obtained for us all, the grace which God poured out on us all, is first applied.[9]  So it is obvious that in this Catholic scholar’s mind, salvation by grace and faith alone is still insufficient unless joined with the moral ethics as outlined in the Ten Commandments.

Justin Edwards sees this as Paul’s message to Peter and the Galatians: Instead of my going back to the Law for justification, says Paul, I learned through the Law itself to renounce the Law as the means for my salvation. True knowledge of God’s holy and spiritual law taught me, that to a sinner, like me, it works death.[10] And because the Anointed One now lives in me by His Spirit, He is the cause of everything right and good in me. The author and sustainer of divine life in the soul are the Anointed One, and what the thing that makes so robust, is the faith in him that formed between my soul and His Spirit. Because of this I received His fullness which is helping me grow in conformity to His image and thereby shines with His glory. So why should I go back to the Law? I’m dead to the Law so there’s no reason for it to visit my grave.[11]

German theologian Heinrich Meyer chooses an interesting way of encapsulating what he feels Paul is saying here about the life he is living is not his, but the Anointed One. The first thing Meyer asks is this, “What did the Anointed One achieve on the cross that affects all of us?” He begins with this: The Anointed One broke down and removed the partition between Jews and Gentile so that out of two He could make one people. Then, by His shed blood, the Anointed One blotted out the Law of Moses so that it neither applies to the Jews or the Gentiles. This then means that if Gentiles are incorporated with the Anointed One, they become eligible for all the blessings previously promised only to the Jews, even though they do not live according to the Law of Moses. They were accepted by God into the family of God for the Anointed One’s sake.

Meyer then goes on to talk about what he calls the “handwriting that was against all of us.”[12] First, it was nailed to the cross and the blood of the Anointed One washed the parchment clean. This handwriting included our legal indebtedness to the Law. It was the basis for our becoming aware of sin and was etched into our hearts where it sparked our sinful tendencies that brought us under condemnation. But, once we are in union with the Anointed One and become one with Him, then this handwriting no longer applies to us because it’s been erased. I like the way Meyer expresses it: It no longer exerts any authority or strength because its seals were removed by the Anointed One’s work on the cross, and its letters erased by the Anointed One’s blood. This then verifies that we all been crucified with the Anointed One.[13]

Johann Peter Lange puts it succinctly this way: I came into fellowship with the Anointed One’s death on the cross, through faith, so that what happened to the Anointed One also happened to me.[14] Isn’t it wonderful that we say the same about the resurrection! That what happened to the Anointed One will also happen to me! John Eadie then adds his feelings of joy by saying, “I’ve been crucified with the Anointed One,” those are Wondrous Words! By being so closely identified with the Anointed One, His death is our death. When He was crucified, we were crucified with Him. We became so much a part of Him under the Law’s curse of suffering and death, that when He died to the Law, we died to the Law with Him. By being in union with the Anointed One we satisfied the Law by yielding to it in obedience which it claimed, suffered its curse, died to it, and because of this, I am now released from it – from its accusations and its penalty and from its claim on us to obey it as the means of receiving timeless life.[15]

William O’Conor says that the law indirectly made us sinners, and then condemned us to death before we broke the first law. But when we heard that the Anointed One took that punishment of death upon Himself for our sake, so when we accepted what the Anointed One did for us by faith, that same faith now makes it possible for us to hate the sin that imposed death upon us.[16] When we consider that we were all sinners and liable to both death of the body and the soul as a punishment, then the Anointed One who was without sin underwent the punishment of sin so that those who believe in Him do not suffer death as a punishment. Being born again down here is just a prelude to everlasting life up above. So we were punished for our sins in the death of the Anointed One, in order that we may immediately enter into a new life of righteousness.[17] Should we not then do as Paul urges us to do, live our lives daily in honor of the One who died for us and the One who sent Him to pay that price? In fact, we cannot do any less.

Alvah Hovey remarked that nothing is deeper in the writings of Paul than his conception of the believer’s union with the Anointed One. He dies to the law and to sin by trusting in the Anointed One. His legal standing and his spiritual condition are reversed in a moment by that act and the union which depends upon it. Paul’s crucifixion with the Anointed One was first realized at his conversion, but the continuance of that crucifixion he experienced all along from that hour to the present. Essentially the same thought is repeated by the Apostle in his letter to the Romans.[18]

Certainly, this gave Paul the freedom to declare any life given to him he dedicated totally to living for the Anointed One. In fact, the Anointed One’s Spirit that now lives in him makes that possible. As Hovey goes on to say that faith was the main element in which Paul was living and breathing and that faith focused on its object, the Son of God. This faith no longer trusted in his own righteousness, as he did under the Law, but in the Son of God. Gone are the legal observances, or holy resolutions, or attempt at perfecting his character through good works. Here we see how tender and personal Paul’s relationship with Jesus became. How blessed must this sorely-tried servant of the Anointed One be when he uttered these words and believed that it would be as dear to the heart of Peter as it was to his own![19]

[1] “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less,” by Edward Mote (1834)

[2] Charles Simeon; On Galatians, op. cit., Discourse 2057

[3] Adam Clarke: Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit

[4] 1 John 1:9

[5] John 8:11

[6] Ibid. 3:17

[7] James A Haldane: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., pp. 84-87

[8] Romans 2:13

[9] George Haydock: Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.

[10] See Galatians 3:24; Romans 3:20; 4:15; 7:10.

[11] Justine Edwards: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[12] Colossians 2:13-14

[13] Heinrich A. W. Meyer: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 98

[14] John Peter Lange: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Volume 8, Kindle Locations 3683-3684

[15] John Eadie: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 184

[16] See Romans 6:1

[17] O’Conor, W. A: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., pp. 39–40

[18] Romans 6:6

[19] Alvah Hovey: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 34

I was reading about the life of the great Jewish thinker Moses Maimonides and the times in which he lived, and came across this story that touched me.  Four Jewish Rabbis were sailing on a ship from the port city of Bari on the SE coast of Italy, on a fundraising tour to gather money for the Jewish Academy in Sura, Babylon – SE Iraq today.  The ship was hijacked by Ibn Romahis, commander of the naval forces of Abd-er-Rahman al-Nasr, and the Rabbis were taken, prisoner.  One of the prisoners, Rabbi Hushiel, was sold into slavery and sent to Kairouan in Tunisia.  Another captured Rabbi named Shemarjaru was sent as a slave to Alexandria, Egypt.  Rabbi Moses was sold into captivity and ended up in Cordova, Spain.  And the fourth Rabbi’s name was never recorded.

When the Jewish communities in all the cities where these Rabbis ended up found out about their plight, they raised the appropriate ransom money and had them redeemed back to their own people.  Rabbi Moses, who found himself in Cordova, Spain, the capital of the Muslim caliphate that had taken over Spain, was more than happy to attend the Synagogue on the first Sabbath since he was set free.

The leader of the local Synagogue in Cordova was a well-respected scholar, Rabbi Nathan.  On this Sabbath, Rabbi Nathan was expounding on the Jewish Talmud, which is a collection of teachings by Jewish scholars.  When it came to question and answer time, Rabbi Nathan found himself unable to give a satisfactory answer to a question that was raised.  So, he looked around for anyone who might have some input.

Rabbi Moses, because of his ordeal was poorly dressed and did not appear to be a very educated individual.  That’s why when he raised his hand, everyone was surprised.  Not only did he answer the question thoroughly, but answered several other difficult questions handed him.  In the end, Rabbi Nathan stood up and declared to the assembly: “I am no longer your leader; that stranger in his sackcloth shall henceforth be my teacher, and you shall appoint him as your chief.”  When the Muslim admiral heard how astoundingly brilliant Rabbi Moses was, he tried to cancel the ransom deal, but the king would not allow it.

I can only imagine this is how the Pharisees and scribes felt when they tried to teach the people but were only causing confusion, then Jesus dressed in His simple Galilean attire stood up and not only answered all the questions but showed Himself to be of such persuasion and authority, that even the great Jewish scholar Nicodemus sought Him out.  Perhaps this same opportunity can be in our destiny if we vigorously study God’s Word and become familiar with the voice of the Holy Spirit – Dr. Robert R Seyda

LEAD ME TO THE ROCK

While attending the University, I needed two subjects to complete my full semester load in order to qualify for military college assistance. The classes I wanted were full, so I took Meteorology and Geology – just for fun. It turned out to be great choices. The professor in Geology asked us to write a paper on “Rocks.”  So naturally, I chose the word “rock” in the Bible.  Here’s a little something I wrote in my paper.

The word “Rock” is only used as a proper noun nine times in the Bible. Most predominantly in Deuteronomy 32. The verses there read v. 4: “The Lord is the Rock, and His work is perfect!  Yes, all His ways are right! God is true and faithful. He is good and honest.” v. 15: “But Jeshurun (Israel) became fat and kicked like a bull. (Yes, you people were fed well and became full and fat.) They left the God who made them! They ran away from the Rock who saved them.” v.18: “You people left the Rock who made you; you forgot the God who gave you life.” v.30: “Can one person chase away 1000 men?  Can two men cause 10,000 men to run away? It will happen only if the Lord gives them to their enemy, and this will only happen if their Rock sells them like slaves.” v.31: “The ‘rock’ of our enemies is not strong like our Rock.  Even our enemies know that.”

David is another Old Testament writer to use this phrase: “The God of Israel spoke. The Rock of Israel said to me, ‘Whoever rules people fairly, who rules with respect for God, is like the morning light at dawn, like a morning without clouds. He is like sunshine after it rains that makes tender grass grow from the ground’” (2 Samuel 23:3). There is one more that is somewhat obscured by the King James Version rendition of Habakkuk 1:12 that actually says, “Lord, you are the one who lives forever! You are my holy God who never dies! Lord, you created the Babylonians to do what must be done. Our Rock, you created them to punish people.”

But it took the Apostle Paul to put it into context for us: “Brothers and sisters, I want you to know what happened to our ancestors who were with Moses. They were all under the cloud, and they all walked through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from that spiritual Rock that was with them, and that Rock was Christ” (1 Corinthians. 10:4). Yes, a Rock that is immovable and always there!  I found out my professor was a believer and was so impressed with my paper he gave me an A!  Hallelujah to the Rock! – Dr. Robert R Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLV)

In another work, Owen also addresses this principle of assigning divine honor to the person of the Anointed One who lives in us.  Paul made it clear, here in verse twenty, that the life which he now lives in the flesh, he lives because of his faith “in” the Anointed One. But that’s not all, it is by that same faith Paul now lives “for” the Anointed One. In other words, you don’t accept forgiveness for your sins from God because of the Anointed One’s work on the cross and then go sit down in the pew and watch the service as a performance celebrating what the Anointed One did for you.

For Owen, the Son of God is the author, object, and finisher of our faith.[1] This provided Paul the reason and motive for saying that this faith he lived by was a continual exercise of faith because the Anointed One “loved him, and gave Himself for him.” This is what so powerfully influences our hearts to fix our faith in Him and on Him. And that person who so loved us is the same One in whom we believe. If believers themselves were the object of their love, it would thereby be the object of their faith.

But where would that get them? Nowhere! The object of our love is the Anointed One and, therefore, He is the object of our faith. Not only is it our duty to love Him but also to serve Him. If this proves not to be the case, then you are not alive in the Anointed One but dead to the Anointed One. But, says Owen, there is no reason to provide multiple Scriptures to prove the point that it is our duty to believe in, love, and serve the Son of God. The greatest minds could search the world over for a substitute for having faith in the Anointed One. It doesn’t exist.[2]

There is another important factor that Owen believer must be taken into consideration. Because of our near relationship with the Anointed One living in us, living for Him, and serving Him it must be considered a permanent principle in our mind and affections. The life we now live is tied to Him and derived from Him. It is to be understood as the Anointed One Himself living out our lives. Therefore, even though we live, it is more of the Anointed One living than it is of us, as Paul says here in verse twenty.

Owen suggests we look at the reason for this conclusion. Did not Jesus say that He was the vine and we are the branches? That we get our spiritual life from Him. So that means, without Him we do nothing.[3] He and He alone is our spiritual life. Not only in this life but in the life to come.[4] As it resides in believers, it is a permanent principle of spiritual life, light, love, and power, being projected from the soul in harmony with the mind, enabling every believer to cling to God with purpose of heart, and to live for Him in everything they say and do as part of their spiritual life. But they don’t do this on their own, they receive help. Jesus said that it will be like a fountain of living water that springs up to give them strength, and that fountain never stops flowing.[5] Owen believes this is a reference to the indwelling Holy Spirit. After all, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.[6]  This spirit that is born of the Spirit possesses a divine nature. And it is that divine nature that makes believers partakers by the promises of God. It is a principle of victorious faith and love, with all the virtues and graces needed to holy living. It influences the manner of the believer’s performance, enabling their soul to be involved in living for God with delight, joy, and satisfaction.[7]

Matthew Poole focuses on what Paul says in verse twenty about “The life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.” Poole feels that it would not be proper for a believer to say that it is “I” that now lives. That’s because our actions no longer run according to our natural tendencies and inclinations but in keeping with the Anointed One by His Spirit that lives in us. That’s because we are renewed and changed. We’ve become a new creation in the Anointed One, and when we became a new creature, we received new tendencies and inclinations. So, even though we still live in our human bodies, we are only spiritually kept alive by the life of the Anointed One in us and our faith in Him as that life. Therefore, all our natural moral virtues became principled in our faith the Anointed One’s power to help us do what pleases God through Him. So, the Law is no longer our guide, but our faith in what the Anointed One said we must be and do now that we are children of the Most High.[8]

Many people today know John Bunyan (1628-1688) as the author of his famous work “Pilgrim’s Progress.” But Bunyan wrote many other books which you don’t hear much about. It is quite remarkable that Bunyan became one of the most successful English writers in the days of Richard Baxter and John Milton. These men, who were well off, could afford to write because they didn’t need to earn a living. But Bunyan, a traveling tin-smith, that they called a “tinker,” who made household utensils like his father, was nearly penniless before becoming a most famous author. His wife was also destitute. In those days, when women were selected for marriage, their families would show their joy and respect for the groom by giving her a dowry to take to her new husband. The only thing she brought were two books written by Puritans. But they were worth much more than they cost because it affected Bunyan’s life in a marvelous way.

Once he was converted, he began to preach and draw large crowds. But Bunyan was not part of the State Church of England, he began to worship and preach in the independent congregations that sprang up in the spirit of the Reformation. But when King Charles II took the reins of government, he shut down these separatist congregations and Bunyan was hauled off to prison where he sat for the next 16 years. But just like the Apostle Paul, Bunyan took the time to read and write. While in prison he wrote nine books. He was granted his freedom for a short while but was soon imprisoned again for six months. It was after that he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress.

In one of his earlier books, he dealt with the resurrection of believers. He stated emphatically that any person who denied the resurrection of the Anointed One is worthless to Christianity and His Church. He was making reference to some churchmen in his day who did question whether or not the Anointed One was resurrected from the dead or was revived after being in somewhat of a coma for several days. Says Bunyan, they cause many believers to doubt, which leads to the destruction of the congregation. He calls them cankerworms. These are a caterpillar-like insect whose newly hatched larvae eat the soft tissue of young leaves at the tips of branches, giving them a skeletonized appearance. And the older they get the more destructive they become.

For Bunyan, it proved that such individuals were ignorant of God’s power, faithfulness, and His Word. He points to where God said to Abraham and his descendants that He would be their God [9] So we who are the spiritual descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, are counted as part of the living under a threefold consideration. First, being that they are in the Lord and He is in them; that He is the head and they are part of the Body of the Anointed One, all of the elect may be said to be alive in the Anointed One. They were from eternity chosen by Him who also is their life, although possibly many of them are yet unconverted. Yet they say that the Anointed One is their life, by the timeless purpose of God. Secondly, the children of the new covenant live here in the flesh by faith and in glory, they will live in the spirit because their eyes were open and they remain in communication through grace with the Anointed One who is in their souls. Thirdly, Bunyan anchors all that he said on the words of Paul here in verse twenty.[10]

John Bengel sees Paul saying to all those critics who claimed that the Anointed One he was describing was the minister of sin and death, that they are so wrong because the Anointed One is the founder of living right for God and being spiritually alive. In other words, Paul declares all that I am I am in Him. This is the sum and substance of Christianity. Furthermore, although Paul says that he is dead to the Law, he is not depreciating the Law but simply relying on a new Law more divine. the Anointed One’s death on the cross made this all possible. Bengel feels that if verse twenty were rendered this way: “It’s not I that now lives in the flesh but it is the Anointed One who lives inside me,” it would bring out more clearly what Paul is trying to communicate here.[11]

Puritan preacher Jonathan Edwards believes that before any person comes to their senses and realizes that they possess no strength to help themselves, they first must be made aware of the danger of hell. This is especially true that they realize they cannot work out their own deliverance and salvation. They try to make themselves better only to reveal more and more faults. It is only when they throw themselves on the mercy of God and put their trust in the Anointed One that they will be enlightened as to what it means to be born again. So, it is only until a sinner is convinced and convicted of their sin and misery and the punishment that awaits them in hell will they be prepared to receive the redeeming mercy and grace of God. They don’t plead for this on their own, the Anointed One is the one and only Mediator. So they must be drawn by the Spirit to Him so He pleads their case before His Father in heaven.[12]

In another place, Edwards says that it is the nature of the Covenant of Grace that shows God’s design to make ample provision for the saints given an assured hope of timeless life while they are still here on earth. To this end, God made promises to prove His chosen with all the grace, mercy, forgiveness, and perseverance that they found in the Anointed One will never dry up. This will allow them to face anything that comes their way that may try and challenge their faith. He gave the Holy Spirit to be their guide as a personal counselor. So, the bottom line is this: stay true to what the Word of God says and what the Holy Spirit tells you and nothing will ever separate you from the love of God[13].[14]

Joseph Benson believes that to better understand Paul’s point here, we should expand what he says in verse twenty to read that it is no longer I that lives in sin, because I was delivered so that the Anointed One may live in me. That way, my living is no longer under the condemnation of death by the Law, but under the justification through the Anointed One to everlasting life. He was now animated by more nobler views and hopes than the Law could possibly give. That allows him to be engaged through love to God, be part of His people with a more generous, sublime, and extensive obedience than the Law was capable of producing through obedience to its precepts.[15]

[1] Cf. Hebrews 12:2

[2] John Owen: op. cit., Vol. 2, Christologia, p. 172

[3] John 15:5

[4] Colossians 3:4

[5] John 4:14

[6] Ibid. 3:6

[7] John Owen, Vol. 5, Gospel Grounds and Evidences of the Faith of God’s Elect, pp. 152-153

[8] Matthew Poole: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., Kindle Location 701-716, Kindle Edition

[9] See Isaiah 54:13; Jeremiah 31:33; Hebrews 8:10-11

[10] John Bunyan: Vol 1, The Resurrection of the Dead, pp. 251-260

[11] John Bengel: On Galatians, op. cit., loc., cit., p. 583

[12] Edwards, Jonathan: On the Bestowment of Great and Signal Mercies, 1834, III.3 Kindle Location 73881-74141

[13] Romans 8:38-39

[14] Edwards, Jonathan: A Treatise Concerning Religious Affections, Part II, Sect. XI, 1834, Kindle Location 11941

[15] Joseph Benson: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLIV)

Reformer Martin Luther has a lot to say about these two verses which won’t allow me to enter it all here. However, he points out the difference between the established church in his day and the new reform movement that he was leading. He points to the fact that the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church was similar to that of the false apostles in Paul’s day. They teach, “If you want to live for God, you must live according to the Law, for it is written, do this and you will live.” Paul, on the other hand, teaches, “We cannot live for God unless we are dead to the Law.” If we are dead to the Law, the Law exercises no power over us. We are now free to concentrate on Jesus as we live our sanctified life.

Luther goes on to say that to be dead to the Law means to be free from the Law’s power to condemn. What right, then, does the Law need to accuse us, or to hold anything against us? When we see a person wrestling in the clutches of the Law, we should say to them: My friend, let’s get things straight. You are letting the Law dictate to your conscience. Wake up and turn your eyes upon Jesus, the Conqueror of the Law and sin. Faith in the Anointed One will lift you high above the Law into the heaven of grace. Though the Law still remains, it no longer possesses any authority over you, because you are dead as far as the Law is concerned.

Luther then imagines this conversation between a believer and the Law: Believer: “I confess that I sinned.” Law: “Then I will ask God to punish you.” Believer: “No, He will not do that.” Law: “Why not? Isn’t that what He gave me to Moses to do?” Believer: “Yes, but I want nothing to do with you anymore.” Law: “Why is that?” Believer: “Because I now live according to another Law.” Law: “What law is that?” Believer: “It’s called the Law of Liberty.” Law: “What is liberty?” Believer: “The liberty I received from the Anointed One, the one who let you nail yourself to the cross with Him.” Law: “I don’t know what to say.”[1]

On the subject of dying to the Law, John Calvin says that it either means that we renounce it, and are delivered from its dominion so that we put no confidence in it, or, that it does not hold us captive under the yoke of slavery, or, it may mean that since the Law put us on the road to everlasting destruction, through the Anointed One we were placed on the path that leads to a timeless life with God. Calvin says that this last is the one he prefers. Calvin also believes that Paul is saying that it is not because of the Anointed One that the Law became more hurtful than beneficial. Rather, the Law carries within itself the curse of death to all who disobey it. Therefore, it follows, that the death which is brought on by the Law is truly final. However, the kind of death we experience with the Anointed One results in a life-giving fellowship with Him. Since we were crucified together with the Anointed One, we were made alive to live for God, not the Law.[2]

Calvin also writes in another work that if the Law is now a dead thing to us, and we are not trusting in the Law, therefore, if it makes us dead to the Law where else do we turn to find righteousness and deliverance so that we might be made alive and receive the promise of salvation? And why was all this necessary if God needed only to love us? The answer is, God cannot allow us to stand as innocent before Him until sin was not gotten rid of. We must be redeemed, called, and cleansed before that could happen. And the only one who could make that happen was Jesus the Anointed One. That’s where all God’s blessings lie and will lead to our sitting in heavenly places with Him. This should be no surprise since He chose us to be His before the foundation of the world.[3]

But that is not all. The question still remained as to how, by abolishing sin, the Anointed One removed the hostility between God and us, and purchased righteousness which made Him favorable and kind to us. For Calvin, it may be answered primarily by noting that the Anointed One accomplished this through His total obedience to the Father’s will. Paul provides this in his words, “Through Adam’s sin, death and hell came to all men. But another Man, the Anointed One, His right act makes men free and gives them life.”[4] And, indeed, elsewhere he adds the grounds for the pardon which exempts us from the curse of the law to the whole life of the Anointed One, “When the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law.”[5]

As Calvin sees it, all of this allowed for the grafting of the wild olive branches into the holy olive tree of Abraham’s descendants. This was not just for show, but so that they might bear fruit. Everything that we were and did and accomplished before mirrored Adam’s influence. But now, all that we are and will do will mirror the likeness of the Anointed One. That’s why everything leftover from our sinful nature and wicked tendencies must be rendered powerless and treated as though they are dead. In Calvin’s mind, this is the whole point Paul is trying to make here in verse nineteen.[6]

Jakob Arminius wrote on what is meant by “a regenerate person?” He begins by pointing out that there are some important things that exist in the regenerate person that does not exist in the unregenerate person and vice versâ. For instance, the Holy Spirit dwells in the regenerate person but not in the unregenerate individual.[7] Furthermore, the regenerate person escaped worldly influence by getting to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The unregenerate individual is still bound and polluted. The regenerate person’s Law was written in their heart. The unregenerate individual scoffs at the Law.[8] Nor was the unregenerate individual able to prophesy in the Name of the Lord,[9] nor has the faith to move mountains.[10]

Arminius goes on to say that oddly enough, the regenerate person admitted to being a sinner, grieves because of what sin did to their life with godly sorrow, and grew tired of carrying the heavy burden of sin.[11] They are the ones the Anointed One came to redeem, call, regenerate, sanctify, and fill with His Spirit.[12] The regenerate person learned that no one achieves a right standing with God through any good deeds of their own. So, when the Holy Spirit called them to come to the Anointed One, they immediately fled to his cross where He could make them right with God.[13]

Roman Catholic scholar Cornelius à Lapide (1567-1637) disagrees vehemently with Luther and Calvin’s positions on where the line is drawn with the Law for Christians saved by grace. He basis his opposition on the fact that he sees the Law as a forerunner of the Anointed One. When He appeared, the Ceremonial Law died for sure, but the Moral Law was mortally wounded only so far as it was a tutor and a judge of sin. Therefore, we are justified by the Anointed One and not by the Law. This caused the Anointed One to ask the Jews why they were so opposed to Him since it was the Law itself that sent Him. In other words, Jesus was only teaching what was already in the Law. But, says Lapide, it doesn’t mean that the binding force of the Ten Commandments ceased when the Anointed One came, for the Law in this respect was not Mosaic but natural and immutable. Apparently, Lapide did not think that when Jesus said the greatest commandment is to love the Lord God will all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength, and the second is to love one’s fellowman as they love themselves, included the Ten Commandments. By following the teachings of Jesus is to not only follow the Law but to fulfill the Law through obedience to Him.

Lapide goes on to say that through baptism a person is crucified with the Anointed One and they thereby become dead to the Law as it relates to salvation. The problem is, the Law did not offer salvation. The Law only condemned those who did not keep it perfectly in its entirely. Lapide says that baptism also signified being cut off like a branch from a wild olive tree and grafted into the holy olive tree of the Cross of the Anointed One, from which new life is drawn. That new life, not the Law, is what drives a believer into action. the Anointed One’s grace is now, as it were, the believer’s soul and the cause of all virtuous living and fountain of humility, strength, wisdom, joy, peace, and all the virtues of the Spirit. It is hard to argue with Lapide on this point. But to say that keeping the Ten Commandments and all other moral laws is a must for any Christian does water his argument down quite a bit.[14]

Reform theologian John Owen has much to say about what Paul is writing here in verse twenty. Since the just are to live by their faith in the Anointed One and His work on the cross, and everyone is to believe for themselves – justification is not done as a group, and strive to be used of God according to the gifts given them by measure of their faith – they thereby affirmed God’s pardon of their sins and are now heirs of timeless life, are doing so in line with what Paul himself experienced. In that he died on the cross with the Anointed One, he now lives with the Anointed One in him. He reports a new outlook on life because of his trust in the Son of God. He would still be lost in sin if the Anointed One didn’t love him and died to set him free.

What Paul was also doing here was proving that the Anointed One was the only sure way to God and God to us. This is not something anyone attributed to being nice, or doing charitable works, or living an external holy life as they interpreted holiness. This was something given to us because the Anointed One who, of His own accord, voluntarily undertook the task of securing justification for us. We did nothing to impress Him to do so, nor did we plead for Him to take those steps. The only reason the Anointed One died for us is the same reason we’d die for Him – the love of God. No wonder Paul stood in such amazement that he could tell the Galatians; He was the One Who loved me and gave Himself for me. So, what did Paul feel that he owed the Anointed One? He owed him his abilities and talents, his love and his life. We cannot owe our Lord anything less.[15]

[1] Martin Luther: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 57

[2] John Calvin: Bible Cabinet, On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., pp. 51-55

[3] Ephesians 1:3, 4

[4] Romans 5:19

[5] Galatians 4:4-5

[6] John Calvin: Institutes, op. cit., Vol. 3, Ch. 16, pp. 535-536

[7] Hebrews 4:4, 5

[8] Romans 2:13-18

[9] Matthew 7:22

[10] 1 Corinthians 13:2

[11] Matthew 11:28

[12] See Romans 8:30

[13] Jakob Arminius: op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. 229-230

[14] Cornelius à Lapide: On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 250-257

[15] John Owen: op. cit., Vol 1, p. 139. See also pp. 223, 269

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CONGREGATIONS OF BELIEVERS

CHAPTER TWO (Lesson XLIII)

Peter Lombard reads this nineteenth verse as indicating Paul’s declaration that he died to the Law by the power of the Gospel. Therefore, he is no longer required to attempt earning any justification to stand before God as right with Him through the Law. Lombard also emphasizes that Paul is not speaking about dying physically, but morally dying to the law because the Anointed One gives him the power to live his spiritual life. And just as the Anointed One was nailed to the cross, so Paul nailed to the cross his ambitions and faith in the Law to save him.[1]

Then Robert of Melun poses this question on what Paul is saying here: How is this demonstrated through the Law that a person must not keep the Law once they are made free in union with the Anointed One? He believes there are three ways a good case is made. First, the Law says that we are to love our friends but hate our enemies.[2] Since those who hate their enemies cannot be justified, this seems to prove that no one could be justified through the Law. Secondly, the Law addresses only external things by promising rewards when it says that you must do this and that, then you will enjoy the good things of earth.[3] Since nobody could be justified by desiring the things of the world, it is clear that no righteousness will come by way of the Law. And thirdly, the Law itself places all its worshipers under a curse who do not follow the Law to the letter.[4] This makes it clear that to be free from the Law’s demands for justification, we must place our faith in the Gospel so that the blessing of Grace might be fulfilled instead of the curse of the Law.[5]

Catholic theologian Thomas Aquinas points out that the only way to change, alter, or void a law is by the law itself. That means, the law is either totally changed or it is amended. What Paul seems to be saying here is that the old Law was amended by adding a new portion. Before, the Law only pointed out guilt and condemnation to the lawbreaker, but it possessed no power to forgive or remove the sentence. Then the Anointed One came, not to do away with the Law but to amend the Law. That’s why we were given the First Covenant and the Final Covenant. Under this new amendment, there is now forgiveness of sin and the death sentence removed. But not by the Law itself, but by God through the Anointed One who is the new personification of the Law. It’s what He says, not what the old Law said, that counts. The old Law was known as the Law of Moses, now the revised Law is known as the Law of the Anointed One – the Gospel.  And the process by which Paul was no longer subject to the old Law is that he died with the Anointed One on the cross where the price was paid for mankind’s ransom and redemption. And just as the Anointed One rose from the dead, so Paul rose from being spiritually dead to being alive for God with the Anointed One living within him.[6]

Thomas Aquinas then offers an explanation of what Paul intends to say here in verse twenty. It is clear that Paul identifies himself as being dead to the Law. As such, having been resurrected in the Anointed One he now lives for God, namely, that he is guided in his behavior according to the teachings of the Anointed One by being ordained to His honor and glory. The Law was handed down in writing so that the Israelites could practice what was spoken by the giver of the Law for all the world to see. But now, the Gospel is laid down in writing so that the new Israelites could preach what was spoken by the giver of Grace for all the world to hear. For in the beginning, people were weak and unable to approach God, that’s why it was necessary for the precepts of the Law to be given to them in writing, so that by the Law, as by an educator, they were to be led by the hand to the point where they might hear the things He commands. That means the law was our teacher about the Anointed One so that we can be justified by faith.  But after we gain access to the Father through the Anointed One, we are not instructed about the commands of God through the Law, but by God Himself through Grace.  In other words, Paul is saying that the Law was leading him by the hand until he died trying to work out salvation by good works. It was then that the maker of the Law sent His Son so that he could be resurrected to a new life in order that he might live for God.[7]

And in another writing, Aquinas answers the question of whether God became incarnate in order to take away actual sin, rather than to take away original sin?[8] He quotes Chrysostom saying: “This must be the mind of faithful servants, to account for the benefits their Lord bestowed on all alike, to know they were not bestowed on them alone.”[9] When it comes to speaking of himself alone, Paul tells us here in verse twenty, that He [the Son of God], was the One that loved him and gave Himself for him. But our individual sins are our actual sins; for original sin is the common sin affecting all mankind. Therefore, the conclusion seems to be that to acquire this conviction, we must believe that the Son of God became incarnate in human flesh to take away actual sins.[10] I agree with Aquinas to a point. Original sin passed on to all human beings the penalty of death when their sinful tendencies cause them to sin. Jesus’ death on the cross removed that curse of spiritual death and through the new birth, the human spirit is revived to live again. Once a person sins after being born again, those individual sins are handled by Grace, not the Law. There is forgiveness in Grace.

Then comes the inquiry, did the Anointed One die out of obedience?[11] Aquinas begins with Jesus’ own words, “No one takes my life from Me. I give it by Myself. I possess the right and the power to take it back again. My Father gave Me this right and power.”[12] The First Covenant ended by the Anointed One’s death, according to his dying words, “It is consummated.”[13] He fulfilled those moral laws which for the most part were founded on the precepts of loving others, inasmuch as He suffered for us both out of love for us and for His heavenly Father.[14] The Anointed One likewise by His suffering fulfilled the ceremonial precepts of the Law, which are chiefly ordained for sacrifices and offerings, in so far as all the ancient sacrifices were figures of that true sacrifice which the dying the Anointed One offered for us. No doubt that’s why Paul wrote the Colossians about one believer judging another believer on what they ate and holy days they observed.[15] The Anointed One also by His suffering fulfilled the judicial precepts of the Law, which are chiefly ordained for making compensation to them who suffered wrong.[16] This was all done through His suffering out of love for others, and according to what Paul says here in verse twenty:  “He loved me, and delivered Himself up for me,” the Anointed One paid a heavy price for each one of us.[17]

Jakob Arminius looks at the impact that verses 16-21 of this second chapter make on the subject Paul is teaching both to the Jews and Gentiles that no one becomes right with God just by obeying the Law. Only by putting one’s faith in Jesus as the Messiah is anyone made right with God. So, it isn’t what we do for the Anointed One but what the Anointed One does for us. And part of this is done by the Holy Spirit using the preaching of the Word of God so that a person is first convicted of their sin. So, don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that you did it on your own, no matter how generous, compassionate, and caring deeds there may be that were done to convince Him. Neither the Law nor the deeds one performs in compliance with the Law can turn a sinner into a saint. The sinful nature must be put to death so that the spiritual nature comes alive. The old nature served the desires of the flesh, the new nature serves the desires of the spirit. When the sinful nature is pronounced dead, then the Anointed One comes to dwell in the new believer’s heart. If what Paul was saying here could be proven to be false or flawed, then Jesus the Anointed One died in vain.[18]

Arminius then goes on to deal with the question: whether or not sin cohabits with the Anointed One in those who are regenerated? This is further complicated especially when the regenerate person is called a Temple of the Holy Spirit.[19] Therefore, sin cannot dwell in the heart of a believer whose Lord of his life is Jesus the Anointed One. Sin will only attempt to enter if the one inside is too weak to resist. Jesus used an excellent illustration on this when He said that no man enters a strong man’s house and takes away his belongings unless he first ties up the strong man. Only then will he be able to take things from his house.[20] Arminius states that sin does not dwell in those who are “dead to sin,”[21] and “in whom the Anointed One is alive” in their hearts. That’s why Paul could say here in verse twenty, “I was put up on the cross to die with the Anointed One. I no longer live. the Anointed One lives in me. The life I now live in this body, I live by putting my trust in the Son of God. He was the One Who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Yet Arminius goes on to say that for him, the Apostle Paul was not been speaking about himself, but took upon himself the personality of a man who lives to sin, and in whom sin lives, dwells, and operates. And even when the Anointed One and the Holy Spirit come in to dwell, sin does not voluntarily move out and take up residence somewhere else. So, no one says that no sin is in the regenerate believer; it’s already on the record that to be secure in one’s position, but not secure enough in order to reign supreme. They are two different things. It’s the one who rises up and takes command and rules and reigns in one’s life that will be the victor over other spirits trying to live there. That’s why it is so important to surrender one’s will, heart, mind, body, and spirit to the Lordship of the Anointed One and the controlling power of the Holy Spirit in order to defeat sin.[22] That’s why when the Son of God came down in human form to live on earth, the devil was not forced to leave and occupy another planet. He remained in order to the world to see who had power over whom. So, when Jesus rose from the dead it was clear who the victor was.

[1] Peter Lombard: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[2] Matthew 5:43; See Leviticus 19:18

[3] Deuteronomy 28:9-12

[4] Ibid. 27:26

[5] Robert of Melun: On Galatians, op. cit., loc cit.

[6] Thomas Aquinas: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[7] Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.

[8] Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theological, Vol. 5, Part (3)-Question (1)-Article (4), 15

[9] Chrysostom: De Compunctione Cordis, ii, 3 in Latin

[10] Thomas Aquinas, op. cit., Part (3)-Question (1)-Article (4)-Objection (3), p. 15

[11] Ibid. Part (3)-Question (47)-Article (2), p. 639

[12] John 10:18

[13] Ibid. 19:30

[14] Ibid. 14:31

[15] Colossians 2:16-17

[16] See Psalm 68:5

[17] Ibid. Part (3)-Question (47)-Article (2)-Response/Objection (1), p. 640

[18] Jakob Arminius: op. cit., Vol. 2. para 11, p. 280

[19] 1 Corinthians 6:19

[20] Mark 3:27

[21] Romans 6:2

[22] Jakob Arminius: op. cit., Vol. 2, pp. 265-266