Saved by Grace Alone, Through Faith Alone, in Christ Alone - Day 267 Through the Bible

The annual Music in the Mountains Festival will be held this weekend - Saturday, September 28 from 5:30 - 9:30 in the Town Center on our historic town square in Burnsville, NC - near Mt. Celo Church

My Lessons and Applications from Today's Readings

(Ellipses are mine and are used for contemplation)

Judgment against the Chosen, A Remnant Saved, Salvation Extended to Gentiles - Isaiah 41 and 42 - (What It Says - Summarized) - God''s Chosen People, Chosen Nation have been oppressed by enemy nations with only a remnant remaining.  "Who gave Jacob for plunder and Israel to the robbers?  Was it not the LORD, He against whom we have sinned?  For they would not walk in His ways...nor were they obedient to His law...therefore...He has poured on him the fury of His anger." But God encourages this remnant, "My servant Jacob, you Israel, whom I have chosen...The descendants of Abraham, My friend...you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth...and called from the farthest regions...and said to you, You are My servant,; I have chosen you and have not cast you away.  Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed for I am your God.  I will strengthen you.  Yes, I will help you.  I will uphold you with My righteous right hand."  And God's promise of the coming Messiah... "Behold!  My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One...He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles.  A bruised red He will not break, and smoking flax He will not quench; He will bring forth justice for truth...I, the LORD, have called You in righteousness, and will hold Your hand; I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the Gentiles."

A Distraught Soul's Cry for Salvation That Will Glorify God - Psalm 109: 26-31 (What It Says - Summarized)  "Help me, O LORD my God!  Oh, save me according to Your mercy...THAT...they may know that this is Your hand - that You, LORD have done it!  Let them curse, but You bless."

To Abraham and His Seed Were the Promises Made - Galatians 3 (What It Says - Summarized) Paul is admonishing the church at Galatia.  They have been "bewitched." They have denied their liberty in Christ - His work on the cross that imputed righteousness to them...by grace alone...through faith alone...in Christ alone - in exchange for the bondage of the law, for legalism. "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?"  Paul reminds them that the law could not, cannot save.  It was a tutor, a guard until the Messiah came to fulfill the law for us - something no one else could do.  No one was able to keep the law in all its points.  All stood, and stand, condemned by the law.  The apostle reminds them - and us - that Abraham was saved...by faith -"because he...believed God...and He credited it to Him for righteousness."  The law did not even come until 430 years after Abraham, so it could not have been the law that saved him through whom the promise was given, "in you...all nations will be...blessed.  Through the Seed (not seeds) of Abraham - Christ -  we...all nations...are blessed.  Through faith, which is also a gift, we are saved in Christ.  The remnant of the Judaic Chosen People and Nation is preserved; we as Gentiles are grafted into the Abrahamic covenantal blessing (along with the New Covenant blessings) - all now, who through faith in Christ (all children of Abraham - through faith, not lineage) stand righteous before holy God because of Jesus' sacrificial work on the cross - atoning for our sins.  We are cleansed; we are free through faith in Him - a faith passed down to us from the faith of Abraham and God's covenant with him.  "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us...THAT the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, THAT we might receive the promise of the Spirit...through faith."

My Lessons and Applications - Whoa!  What weighty and eternal doctrine and theology!  This is it!  This is clarified for us through the apostle Paul, himself an orthodox Pharisaic Jew, taught by the acclaimed Rabbi Gamaliel, a man who persecuted and attempted to destroy the Christian faith...until...his Damascus road theophany of and revelation from Jesus Christ.  From that point on he was sent as a witness to the Gentiles and to the Jews.  From Genesis through the New Testament we see our past, our present, and look forward to our future - the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and our eternal life with Him and the Father.  Because of Christ, we as sinners can stand before Holy God - now...before His throne in prayer, now...indwelt by Christ through the gift of His Holy Spirit, and secured...in the future...eternally...to stand in His presence.  "For you are all sons of God...through faith...in Christ Jesus. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's (the Seed), then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise."  Thank You, Father, for this indescribable gift! (2 Cor. 9:15)  It is fundamentally and eternally...all...of God and to His glory.  How does this impact my life?  "Compelled by the love of Christ" (2 Cor. 5:14), my life is given back to God as a gift...to use as He wills for His kingdom work.

You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:26

All our names are in the same family register.  One of us may have been given more gifts of grace than another, but our heavenly Father has the same tender heart of love toward us all.  One of us may do greater works for Him than another and, thus, may bring more glory to his Father, "yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven" (Mat. 11:11) is just as much a child of His as one who stands amid the King's "mighty men" (2 Sam. 23:9).  May this truth bring us joy and comfort when we "draw near to God" (Ps. 73:28) and say, "Our Father" (Matt 6:9).

Charles Spurgeon, Morning and Evening