TACOMA BIBLE COLLEGE SPIRITUAL FORMATION: 2011 Journal Entry: 42 NUMBER Title: Freedom.

Verse: Galatians 5:1 Scripture Galatians: - 5:1 For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery. Observation Paul is urging the Galatian believers not to go back to the keeping of the law in addition to the Gospel of the finished work of Christ. Christ has set the believers free from the bondage of the law and its condemnation. He has given them a new way of life in Spirit. Paul is exhorting them to stand firm in their position of freedom, because there was no need of going back to the law and its ordinances, which is the very thing that Jesus Christ had freed them from. Some of the Galatians had been deceived by a few Judeo-Christians, who were perverting the gospel, by infiltrating it with the old way of the law which has been abolished by Jesus Christ. Principles Principles: 1) Do not go away from the freedom that Jesus Christ, has given. 2) No need to keep the law, the way of being justified by the law, has been abolished by Christ. 3) Christ hath given us a new way of life. 4) We must not add to the Gospel, to the finished work of Christ, nor subtract from it. It is more than sufficient to justify us and save us. Application Gal 5:4, You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law; you have fallen away from grace. The law brought bondage and knowledge of sin. But it could not bring a person into a personal and loving relationship with God. Because, it is impossible for anyone to be justified by it. God requires perfectness to be in His presence, which only Christ Jesus possesses and He only can provide His as the basis of our justification before God. Gal 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba! Father. By His finished work he has provided us with freedom from the yoke of bondage of the law and other systems of works, and has given us a new way of life in Spirit, where we can have a personal, intimate and loving relationship with God where God is our Father, based on our new spiritual birth in Christ. Gal 4: 9 But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?. The law has been crucified with Christ on the cross. By His death it had been made ineffective. So I need not add or Shaphan Dumpala NAME

take anything away from the finished work of Christ, I can trust in His sufficiency to save and justify and bring me into a relationship with God the Father. Prayer Lord Jesus for coming for us, to save us by Your life, death, and Your resurrection. Lord help us to realize the sufficiency and the excellency of You and Your Work, so that we might not be tempted to add anything to it. God forbid that I glorify except in Your cross. Help me to live in the justified state and not be moved away from the hope of it. Help me not to look at my own works or fruits to be in Your presence, but only depend wholly on Your grace and mercy, displayed on the cross. Amen.