R.H. blog

Galatians 1: Paul’s letter to the Galatians addresses the delineation between the teaching of Christ and the teaching of man—a delineation that the Galatians had apparently blurred. Paul begins by reminding them that “the gospel they have received” is not from him or from any man but the Man Christ Jesus. With this knowledge, he asks them, why do they seek a different gospel? Why do they seek what is man’s, which can profit nothing, when they have already received what is God’s, which is everything? How are we to know the difference between what is man’s and what is God’s? Know what you have received by revelation, not by the teaching of man (v. 11-12). Paul goes on to explain how for many years what he was taught by man defined him and inspired all his actions, but in a single moment, through the revelation of Christ in him on the road to Damascus, the teachings of all those years crumbled to the ground and only one fact remained: Christ and Christ crucified. Nor was it necessary fo...

Isaiah 57:8 “Also behind the doors and their posts you have set up your remembrance; for you have uncovered yourself to those other than Me, and have gone up to them; you have enlarged your bed and made a covenant with them; you have loved their bed, where you saw their nudity.” In comparing Israel’s worship of false gods and allegiance to worldly practices to adultery, God is saying that worship—of God or of the world—is as intimate an act as sexual intercourse. Indeed, more so, because worship deals with the soul and not the body only. Worship is a submission of self—soul and body—to a greater force, real or perceived. Mere existence requires the submission of your soul to an external force. In the simplest interactions of life with life, there are concessions to be made, choices of one thing over another, forces of will and thought behind every action. If the driving force behind these things is the law of God, we are in submission to God. If it is the law of the world, we are i...