The True Faith - Not Just Accept, But Also Follow

-          Part One - Study Notes of Galatians 

 

Paul planted the Galatian churches. Galatian Christians heard the true Gospel from Paul, and accepted. But later some people came and preached another gospel in the Galatian churches. Paul received the report about the situation of Galatian churches. He was very surprised about those Galatian Christians who turned from the true Gospel to the false gospel so quickly. Paul was also angry with those who spread the false gospel among the Galatian churches, and Paul repeated that those false teachers are cursed. Paul said very clearly in the following passages.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. - Galatians 1:6-9

The false teacher asked Christians in Galatian to add more works on their faith in Christ to be saved.

Paul summarized that justification by faith in Christ is the true Gospel in Galatian 2:15 – 16:

We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners; yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law, because by works of the law no one will be justified. 

Today we are not like the Galatian churches, in which some of church members were trying to work for their salvation. In my Christian community, I have not met one Christian who denied the doctrine of justification by faith. We all embrace the doctrine of justification by faith and salvation by grace. But we are troubled by some kind of wrong perspective of Christian living even though we believe the truth of justification by faith as presented by Paul in the book of Galatians. 

False gospel spread in Galatian churches required Christians to work for their salvation. Today many of us believe that once we made the decision to accept Jesus, we are on the train to eternal life no matter how we live our life, and we can live like the unbelievers who live without Jesus. That’s why some of us quit church and Bible study group, and started to doubt our Christian faith, question the authority of Bible, and disobey Bible teaching.  We live like the unbelievers but we thought that we are saved because we believed justification by faith. In short, we accepted Christ as savior and Lord, but we live without Christ. But the truth is that accepting Jesus, but not following Jesus is not the entire true gospel that Bible teaches. 

When Paul clarified the true gospel to Galatian churches, Paul didn’t end at verse 2:15-16., but continued the following verses 2:17-21

But if, in our endeavor to be justified in Christ, we too were found to be sinners, is Christ then a servant of sin? Certainly not! For if I rebuild what I tore down, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. 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. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

Paul told us that Christians does not live on their own, but live with Christ in their life.

In another letter to Corinthian church, Paul gave statement in 1 Corinthian 15:

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

After receiving the gospel message, one must hold fast it or one didn’t really believe it.

Jesus gave his followers this great commission, which recorded in the book of Matthew 28:19-20:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Jesus told his disciples that they should not only baptize the believers, but also teach them to obey His commends.

All the above verses have a common theme that acts must follow after one’s receiving gospel and accepting Jesus. Christians do not work for their salvation, but work out their salvation, and demonstrate the fruits of their salvation. But what if there are no acts following the decision of accepting the true gospel, but there are no acts demonstrated or quit Christian life such as stopping church going, and quite Bible study or even disobey the teaching from Bible? Paul did not say that those Galatian Christians were not saved even though they believed the false gospel in some extent. We should not either conveniently make judgment on the status of one's salvation when a proclaimed Christian did not live out Christian life or walk backwards on spiritual growth.

For Christians, God’s plan is not just to save us, and let us live whatever we want to live, and then take us to Heaven when we die. In fact, according to Bible, Jesus never asked people to just accept Him, but He asked people to follow Him.. In fact, according to Bible, Jesus never asked people to accept Him, but He asked people to follow Him.

And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you  fishers of men - Matthew 4:19

According to Bible, Christian in deed is saved by faith alone, by grace alone, and by Christ alone. But a saved person will not sit on the doctrine of justification by faith and wait to go to Heaven. I discussed about the acts after becoming Christian in Paul’s letter, and in great commission in Matthew. The life must be changed after becoming Christians and continues to change, and the saved person will be a new creation as Paul said in 2 Corinthian 5:17. What are the changes? The simple answer is "Follow" that Christian must follow Jesus in mind, heart, and in action, not just accepted Jesus in words. When Peter and other disciples followed Jesus at the time, they physically walked with Jesus from village to village and town to town for three years, and they followed Jesus in spirit with Jesus for the rest of their life. 

What does "following Jesus" mean today?

It should be no difference from how Peter and Paul followed Jesus, who preached the true gospel, and lived Christian life by obeying Bible teaching even though struggled sometimes in life. 

I had known a devotion American Christian for many years. Now he is in Heaven with our Lord. I will see him one day. 

When he was still with us on this earth, we met once for a while. We talked about many topics. One question I remember the most.

"Brother, how do you walk with the Lord recently?" 

I can also understand "walking" the same as "following". I can also take the question as "how do you follow Jesus". 

In his second letter to Corinthian church, Paul asked us to test if Christ is in us. 

    Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 

    - 2 Corinthian 13:5

Paul didn't ask us to examine each other, but examine ourselves if our faith is in Christ and also test our faith if it is real. 

How do we examine? How do we test?

Examine whether we follow Jesus. Test whether we follow Jesus. Following Jesus means in both mind and action. Following Jesus means obeying Jesus’ commands and other Bible teaching in both mind and action. Jesus commands us to share the gospel, and make disciples. Jesus gave us Holy Spirit when He left this earth and went to Heaven. Holy Spirt is indwelling in Christians, and Holy Spirit guides Christians, and convicts Christians.

Bible teaches us that it’s very dangerous for Christians to be backsliding in faith or waking away from faith. God will discipline His Children in various ways for their rebelling and going astray.   The greater danger is that one may profess being Christian, but not being saved yet, and they will pass the future opportunity of salvation.

We are facing different challenges from what the Galatian Christians did, but we can overcome the challenge as long as we hold fast the true Gospel, not only accepting Jesus, but also following Jesus.