“It is fine to be zealous, provided the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you. My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you.”

Before penetrating into the depth of these verses, it is appropriate to read the whole chapter four of the Epistle to the Galatians, which contains these words. Here the Spirit of God through the Apostle Paul confronts us with a number of truths. Beginning with verse 12, the Apostle Paul personally addresses the Christians of Galatia: “I plead with you, brothers, become like me, for I became like you. You have done me no wrong. You know I was sick when I first preached the Gospel to you. Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn. Instead, you welcomed me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. Where is that joyful and grateful spirit you felt then? I am sure you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me if it had been possible. Have I now become your enemy because I am telling you the truth? Those people are zealous to win you over, but their intentions are not good. What they want is to alienate you from us, so that you may be zealous for them.” The Apostle reminds the Galatians of their initial zeal, when he preached Jesus among them by word and mighty deeds. Their sincerity was great.

“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.”

These Bible verses, which again we are going to recite for two weeks, are followed by the verses: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Let us be aware that we are sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus rather than through works. We are in Him spiritually; not only through baptism – as it is written that being baptized into Christ we have clothed ourselves with Christ – but also through faith and through the holy sacraments we should be aware of this deep truth, draw strength from it for spiritual struggle and rejoice that Jesus is with us, that we are in Him, and He is in us. As Jesus said: “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.” And this happens during Holy Communion in the Divine Liturgy.

Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!

This verse, which we are going to recite for two weeks, is preceded by the following verses in the same chapter: “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die.” (Rom 5:6-7)

Verse 8 then emphasizes: “But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Rom 5:8)

And this is followed by verse 9: “Since we have now been justified by His blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through Him!” We need to know that we have been justified by nothing less than the blood of Jesus! And thus we are also saved from the just punishment for our sins; we are saved from God’s wrath.

The preceding verses read: “What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. The law was put into effect through angels by a mediator. A mediator, however, does not represent just one party; but God is one. Is the law therefore opposed to the promises of God? Absolutely not! For if a law had been given that could impart life, then righteousness would certainly have come by the law.” So the Apostle Paul explains to us again that justification from sin, or so-called righteousness, does not come by the law, i.e. by the external observance of the law. We ask: So what is the purpose of the law? We find the answer in verse 22, which we are going to recite for the following two weeks: “But the Scripture declares that the whole world is a prisoner of sin, so that what was promised, being given through faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.” It says that, as the Scripture declares, the whole world is a prisoner of sin. In other words, the law convicts us of sin but does not deliver us from it. We are delivered through faith in Jesus Christ. So that what was promised is given to those who believe in Jesus Christ. Therefore the centre of our faith and salvation is a personal relationship to Christ.

For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no longer of promise; but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

This statement in verse 18 is preceded by a mention in verse 13 of the curse of the law which Jesus took upon Himself. And it is explained further: “…so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.” It is said here that the blessing given to Abraham is also given to pagan nations, that means to us too, in Christ. Concerning the Jews, the physical descendants of Abraham, the blessing comes to those who have received Jesus through faith. The prophets and the righteous of the Old Testament believed that the Messiah would come and they de facto received Him beforehand through faith they had at the time. Eventually, the first to receive Jesus were the apostles, who were Jews, i.e. the physical descendants of Abraham. There are other descendants of Abraham, too, who crucified Christ, namely the Jewish scribes, Pharisees and high priests, and today mostly Masonic Jews.

“Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.”

It is said that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. However, one supposes that the Law of Moses brings blessing rather than curse. So how are we to understand it? Verse 10 says: “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’” We read in the Epistle of James: “For whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.” (Jam 2:10) No person is able to fulfil all the requirements of the law. So all people are under the curse of the law. Verse 11 says: “But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident, for ‘the just shall live by faith’.” So justification from sin is by faith in Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus voluntarily took upon Himself the curse which falls on each of us for our sins to redeem us from this curse, which is the fruit of sin, and also to redeem us from eternal death caused by sin.

For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

In the Letter to Corinth, the Apostle Paul speaks about the resurrection from the dead. He writes: “Now I would remind you, brethren, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you.” (1Cor 15:1-2) Then the Apostle mentions that Jesus appeared to Peter and the Twelve, and he continues: “After that He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep.”

Tradition holds that Jesus first appeared to His Mother, then on the Sunday of resurrection He appeared to Mary Magdalene, and thereafter to the women, to Peter, in the afternoon to the disciples going to Emmaus, and then in the evening to the Apostles who had gathered together in the upper room. A week later, He appeared to the Apostles again, and Thomas was with them. Then the Apostles went to Galilee where Jesus appeared to them by the Lake of Gennesaret early in the morning. During the conversation, He talked especially to Peter to whom He entrusted the authority of the supreme shepherd over His flock. Thereafter He appeared to more than five hundred brethren.

But that no one is justified by the law in the sight of God is evident,  for ‘the just shall live by faith’.

It is clearly said here that no one will be justified by the law, and it is emphasized that the just shall live by faith. Let us focus again on the term ‘the just’, both from the natural point of view and from the point of view of the Scripture. The just is the one who gives everyone his due, i.e. giving God, neighbour and oneself what is due by right.

Injustice is to respond to the love of God with indifference. Jesus gave His life for us on the cross, and our response is boycott and unbelief – this is injustice. Let us be just; let us respond to His great love with gratefulness and love.

From the point of view of faith, the word justice also means justification or purification from various injustices and sins. We are justified by faith; not by our works but by faith which is connected with the admitting of our trespasses before God. By faith we are united to Christ’s death on the cross, which means that each of us personally believes in the Word of God saying that Jesus died for all my sins and if I walk in the light, His blood cleanses me from all sin (cf. 1Jn 1:7-9).

Verses 6 and 7, which speak of justification by faith, are continued by verse 8. It is said that the Scripture foresees that God would justify the Gentiles by faith. An example is Abraham himself, who was a Gentile but he believed in God, in His almightiness, acknowledged God as his sovereign Lord and surrendered his life to Him. He accepted the moral laws which God had put into the heart of man through conscience. In this respect, Abraham is an example to the Gentiles. If they have the faith of Abraham, God will justify the Gentiles; He promised it to Abraham, saying, “In you all the nations shall be blessed.” However, we have to distinguish between the Gentiles like Abraham and the Gentiles who have embraced religious systems which block them and are the greatest obstacle for the Abrahamic faith because they force the Gentiles to worship demons rather than the one Sovereign God as the Creator and Supreme Lawgiver.

Verse 5, preceding verses 6 and 7, reads: “Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?” Once again, the Apostle emphasizes here that God works miracles not because we keep the law but because we have believed and stand in the faith. The Scripture clearly emphasizes that we must not suppose that God justifies us through our own effort to keep the law. We would be mistaken just as if we thought that God gives us His Spirit through our own effort.

The Apostle continues in verse 6: “Just as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” The Apostle points to Abraham again and sets him as an example of faith. He believed God, believed in God’s almightiness, and he stood in this faith even in the face of hard trials. Faith was accounted to him for righteousness; in other words, he was justified of his sins by faith. The Apostle continues in verse 7: “Therefore know that only those who are of faith are sons of Abraham.” The faith in one God the Creator is the foundation for justification of sins.

Chapter three of the Epistle to the Galatians begins as follows: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed among you as crucified?” And verses 2 and 3 continue: “This only I want to learn from you: Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?”

In chapter two, the Apostle points out that we are not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Christ (v.16) and if justification came through the law, then Christ died in vain (v.21). So justification requires faith in Christ Jesus. And now the Apostle reveals that this faith in Christ is also necessary for man to receive the fullness of the Spirit of God like the Apostles on the Day of Pentecost. He makes it clear that one does not receive the Spirit of God by the works of the law but again

Let us notice the preceding verses which are related to this verse. It concerns verses 17-20:

“But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is Christ therefore a minister of sin? Certainly not! For if I build again those things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor. For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

These verses also include the well-known verse which we often mention; it concerns the truth of being crucified with Christ. It is very deep. We can see that it is set in a whole.

 Both in the Epistle to the Romans and the Epistle to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul points to the deep truth which concerns our justification from sin. He says that we know that a man is not justified before God by his works but by faith in Jesus Christ. He emphasizes that by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified. We who have believed in Christ Jesus have been justified from our sins by faith in Him.

If we repeat these Bible verses during our prayer stop seven times a day, after calling on the name of God and looking at the five wounds of Christ in our act of repentance, every time we will thus truly put the saving faith into practice. Let us stand in this faith for a while and not doubt that my sins are really forgiven me who have now believed in Christ Jesus, and if relieved of sin I should die now, I would enter eternal glory. Not through my merits, good works or righteousness but by faith through which I believe that Jesus paid for me, for all my sins! I could never make amends for my sins with good works.

What does the word heir express? The Word of God says that if we are children, we are also heirs. And how do we become children of God? By receiving Jesus: “As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” (Jn 1:12) Salvation, which Jesus obtained for us through His blood in a hard struggle on Calvary, is given us freely as an inheritance through faith. We should obtain grace for other people too, that they also may receive Jesus and share in the inheritance of eternal life after death.

What does it mean to be the heir of the world? It does not mean to establish dominion over the world for our physical descendants, as it has been misinterpreted by some Jews to this day. It means to win souls for God! At the time of Abraham, human souls were under the sway of demonic forces within worldwide pagan worship of a variety of idols. We are in a similar situation today.

«Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised? Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.»

The Apostle asks: Does this blessedness, stemming from faith, come upon the circumcised only, or upon the uncircumcised also? The Jews were very particular about circumcision and related it to the whole religious system of certain rites. The danger has always been that an emphasis on secondary things eliminates the essence – here the essence of salvation, which consists in personal relationship to God.

“For what does the Scripture say? ‘Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.’ Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.”

Here the Word of God highlights the example of Abraham. The preceding verse reads, “For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God.” And the following verse continues, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.” Here the meaning of righteousness is more like ‘justification’. Man does unspeakable injustice to God by sinning. The holiness of God is infinite, and so an insult to God deserves the highest punishment.