Galatians 2:15-20

After the exchange of sin for righteousness is that of wrath for acceptance. Then comes the exchange of death for life. Christ died for dead men that they might rise to be living men. Paul's happy if somewhat involved testimony makes this clear: "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." (

For Reading and Meditation:     Galatians 3:1-25

The Christian Church has always struggled to get the balance right between faith and works. Romans is the great book on "faith" while James is the great book on "works." I know some Christians who never read the book of James, taking sides with Martin Luther who called it a "book of straw." Martin Luther may have been...

For Reading and Meditation:     Galatians 2:15-21

We turn now to consider the second of our Lord's Beatitudes: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted" (Matthew 5:4). It is important to note that there is a very definite order in these sayings of Christ. Every one is carefully thought out and is given a...

For Reading and Meditation:     Matthew 27:32-44

What humiliation and shame our Lord endured for us on the cross of Calvary. Cicero, a Roman philosopher, said of crucifixion: "Far be the very name of a cross not only from the bodies of Roman citizens, but from their imaginations, eyes and ears." But He, our Lord, though sinless, was crucified on a cross. Although...

For Reading and Meditation:     1 Corinthians 6:1-11

In his book Conversion - Christian and Non-Christian, C. Underwood says that the future of religion lies with the religions of the East, such as Hinduism and Buddhism, where conversions seem to occur. He hears followers discussing such things as self-sacrifice and the practice of good works and labels that as...

For Reading and Meditation:     Galatians 2:11-21

The argument presented by pluralists that Christians must view their religion as one among many, and Jesus as only one Savior among others, must be firmly resisted. It may sound arrogant to say so but it is nevertheless a fact that Christianity is unique, absolute, definitive, ultimate, and final. Critics of the...

And what was Paul? A blasphemer, a persecutor, one who injured the church of God. And did Jesus love Paul? Yes: "He loved me." Then the love of Jesus is free, and not on account of anything man is.

The cause of love is in God, not in the objects loved. You may have looked for some reason to conclude that God has loved you, but you have been disappointed; the Lord says, "I will love them freely." When we were dead in sins, He quickened us because He loved us; He revealed Jesus to us...

Jesus was our Substitute. He lived, suffered, and died, in our stead. Our sins were imputed to Him, punished in Him, and removed by Him.

God had cursed us, but Jesus gave Himself to bear the curse in our stead; every threatening of the law was executed on Him; everyone of the claims of justice was answered by Him; and now God is just and yet the justifier of everyone that believeth in Jesus. The debt-book is crossed, the handwriting that was against us is destroyed, and every foe is...

When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood, he first of all said, "Live"; and this he did first, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in spiritual matters, and until it be bestowed we are incapable of partaking in the things of the kingdom. Now the life which grace confers upon the saints at the moment of their quickening is none other than the life of Christ, which, like the sap from the stem, runs into us, the branches, and establishes a living connection...

The Lord Jesus Christ acted in what he did as a great public representative person, and his dying upon the cross was the virtual dying of all his people. Then all his saints rendered unto justice what was due, and made an expiation to divine vengeance for all their sins. The apostle of the Gentiles delighted to think that as one of Christ's chosen people, he died upon the cross in Christ. He did more than believe this doctrinally, he accepted it confidently, resting his hope upon it. He...