STAND STAND FAST AND STEADFAST
Pastor J. C. O;Hair
Pastor J. C. O;Hair
Let us compare Galatians 5:1 and I
Corinthians 15:58: “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath
made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”
“Therefore my beloved brethren, be
ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as
ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”
It is obvious that a person must
first have liberty before that person can stand fast in that liberty. Believers
have liberty because they are in Christ, and there is no condemnation to them
that are in Christ Jesus: “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1 and 2).
Christ said, in John 8:36; “Whom the
Son sets free shall be free indeed”. Then we read in Romans 6:18 and Romans
7:6, “Being made free from sin ye became the servants of righteousness.” “But
now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held: that
we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the
letter.”Liberty in Christ Jesus, by the grace of God.
So we learn that Christians are
delivered from the law of sin and death, from sin and from the law given at
Sinai; by the work of Christ - (Romans 8:2 and 3).
The Gentiles, throughout Galatia, as
sinners, had not been under the law. But many of them, who were saved by Paul’s
grace gospel, were bewitched by zealous religious Jews described in Acts 15:9
and 5, who taught the Gentile Christians . . . “Except ye be circumcised after
the manner of Moses, ye cannot be saved.”
Paul called these bewitched Gentile
Christians, “foolish Galatians”, (Galatians 3:1 to 4). Even Peter the minister
of the circumcision, said . . . “why tempt ye God, to put a yoke (the law) upon
the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?”
(Acts 15:10).
Note Paul’s words to those Gentile
Christians who went back from Calvary to Sinai: “Christ is become of no effect
unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.”
(Galatians 5:4).
Paul wrote in Romans 5:2 of this
grace wherein we stand. He pled with the Galatians not to make the vain attempt
to supplement the grace of God or make their salvation more secure by getting
under the law.
Note Paul’s words in Galatians 2:21:
“I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law,
then Christ is dead in vain.” In Romans 6:14 Paul wrote: “Ye are not under the
law but under grace.”
Christ had suffered intense agony to
deliver all who were under the law (Galatians 3:13) and to give liberty to
believing Jews and Gentiles.
So Paul urged the Christians not to
be entangled with the yoke of bondage but to stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath set them free.
Now compare Romans 4:5 with I
Corinthians 15:58: “But to him that worketh not, but believeth, on Him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.”
“Therefore, my
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of
the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” Now
read I Corinthians 3:11 to 15 and learn that it is possible to be saved so as
by fire without works that will be rewarded. The thief on the cross was saved,
but he had no good works for reward. But if we build on Christ the foundation
our works will abide; will be wellpleasing to God and will be richly rewarded.
(Read Colossians 3:15 to ).
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