I really do enjoy life. I enjoyed the coffee in the morning, the early lunches, the evening entertainment, playing games with my grandsons, and just about every other thing in my life. I like to fish, drive my corvette, sit with friends over coffee, casually working on my stamp collection, and yes, even playing Fallout4 on my Xbox1. I’m learning to relax in retirement and enjoy the freedom each morning of being able to do whatever I want (for the most part!). Yes, we really do enjoy our lives. That’s what God intended. In one of his letters to Timothy, Paul exhorted this young man to relax and enjoy life. He tells him to trust God “Who richly and ceaselessly provides us with everything for our enjoyment” (Amplified Bible 1 Timothy 6:17). I know there are some perverted exceptions but the standard norm is that we all love our lives and cling to them. We’d rather give up our money or any other possessions to thieves in order to save our lives. I read of a farmer recently who cut off a leg in order to save his life. We will submit our bodies to treacherous medical procedures to extend our lives for even one month. The truth is, we love our lives and will do almost anything to sustain them. It’s interesting as James Montgomery Boice observed, “Satan used this truth to slander righteous Job: ‘Skin for skin! A man will give all he has for his own life’ (Job 2:4). For nearly everyone, life is the most precious of all possessions.”[1]
Yet the Psalmist David exclaims in Psalm 63:3, God’s “steadfast love is better than life.” The sad thing about all the wonderful blessings in life that we enjoy so much is that none of them can truly touch our being, our souls. They provide temporary relief from the pain in the world. They offer momentary physical pleasures. They bring partial satisfaction to our search for meaning. They serve to pass the time for us. But they never touch us where we need it most. Jesus told the woman at the well in Samaria that earthly water will only satisfy for a short time. But He then says, “if you knew who it is that is speaking with you, you’d ask him for the Living water from which you will only need to drink once and be fully satisfied.” (John 4).
The steadfast love of God is the living water. It quenches our soul’s thirst for all time. Paul prayed for the Ephesians that they would “sink their roots down deep into God’s love” (Ephesians 3:17). He went on to explain that this is how we produce good fruit in our lives. Actually, Christ produces the fruit through us. That’s how Paul could say, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
[1] James Montgomery Boice, Psalms 42–106: An Expositional Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2005), 519.
Free From Religion
The first word in the letter Paul wrote to the Galatians is “Paul.” Up to Acts 13:9, The Apostle was called by his Jewish name, Saul. It made him acceptable to his Jewish audiences. When he joined Barnabas and John Mark on the first missionary journey to Galatia, his role changed radically. To begin with the journey was led by Barnabbas who brought his cousin, John Mark, along. Both Barnabbas and John Mark were solid Jewish believers. I would argue that their intention was to go to the Jews only, but while on the Island of Cyprus a “Jewish” false prophet attempted to prevent the governor, Sergius Paulus, a Roman Official, from accepting the faith. It was then that Paul stepped up and cursed the false “Jewish” prophet with blindness. Sergius Paulus became the first gentile convert under the Apostle Paul’s ministry. It is interesting that after Acts 13:9, Saul becomes Paul from that point on. Some early church fathers think that Saul took his gentile name at that time to honor his first convert who had the same name. But I see it as part of God’s plan to move Paul from a Jewish focus to a gentile focus.
Being of the tribe of Benjamin (As we read in Philippians), I’m fairly certain that his parents named Saul after the first King of Israel. Saul, the King, was head and shoulders taller than most of the men in Israel at that time and it made him stand out. It is interesting that “Paul” means “small” or “little.” Maybe that was an intentional change for this proud Pharisee who was humbled and knocked to his knees and blinded by the Lord. Paul’s blindness led to his salvation, but not so with the “Jewish” false prophet. Instead it led to the salvation of Paul’s first gentile convert. The Jews who insisted on forcing the Law into the salvation equation were as furious with Paul’s message as the Religious leaders were of Jesus who put Himself above the Law. Religious people hated Jesus. Religious people hated Paul. Religious people are violently opposed to a salvation message that is freely offered to irreligious people.
The second thing worth noting in Galatians 1:1is that Paul calls himself an “Apostle – not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead.” Paul’s apostleship to the gentiles came directly from God. As Rushdoony observes, “Paul is emphatic because there was a major effort to belittle his calling, his teaching, and his person.”[1] This attack on Paul came from the Judaizers who insisted on connecting obedience to the law with salvation by grace through faith. Paul preached a Gospel that put the person and work of Christ at the center. It forced each person to see their sinfulness and their need for a savior. It took God’s divine intervention in this hyper-religious Pharisee’s life to get his attention. It takes divine intervention today as well for religious people to get the truth of the Gospel. Jesus did not come to set up another religion but to destroy all religion. It always takes divine intervention to set a person free from the law of sin and death.
[1] Rousas John Rushdoony, Romans & Galatians (Vallecito, CA: Ross House Books, 1997), 315.