Title: Normal Christian Life
At the beginning of the text, there is a scene of rebuking the unevangelical actions of Peter and Barnabas, who were recorded as Cephas in a place called Antioch in Pisidia (11-15).
At first, Peter escaped from the ceremonialism of legalistic righteousness in Jesus Christ and Jewish supremacy as a circumcision, and lived with pure gospel faith, believing in the grace of justification by faith in Jesus (Acts 10:28-29, 11:1-) 18) Either his faith has weakened, or he was eating food with a foreigner, and then, as Christians with a Jewish mindset came, the consciousness that he would not be with a stranger was revived, and he even left the meal while fearing them. We have exonerated Peter's contradictory behavior. Then, we share the essence of the gospel that we want to reaffirm.
Galatians 2:16 “Because we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we also believe in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified not by works of the law, but by faith in Christ. There is no body to be justified by the works of the law.” As a Christian with this gospel idea, how should we deal with the different types of realities of life in order to have a normal Christian life attitude?
We can be normal through the message from Galatians 2:20 in today's text.
I would like to ponder the Word on the topic of the Christian life.
1. Attempt to recognize based on the Bible
How you understand history and things will affect your behavior. To believe in Jesus and live as a child of God is to first perceive the world with a mindset based on biblical truth. It is not about conforming to the values of the times, but about putting everything on the Bible and recognizing it.
The saints who have been saved begin to think and evaluate anything based on the Bible. Paul was a Jewish legalist and a Pharisee. Then, after he met Jesus, he dismissed the science of the world, the philosophy of the world, and the values of the world in one word.
Colossians 2:8 “Beware lest anyone plunder you with philosophy and vain deceit, according to the traditions of men and according to the elementary learnings of the world, and not according to Christ.”
This is not pride, but a comparison of the limits of human knowledge and values in front of absolute truth, and it is a word that clearly evaluates how weak the philosophy of the world before Jesus was. The normal position of a Christian's life is to first begin to understand the Bible according to the Bible. We evaluate the world according to the Bible and proceed according to the Bible, no matter what tribulation comes or the tide of the world.
I hope you know that it is a great blessing if you are aware of the change in yourself as a Christian. Colossians 3:10 “Having put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of him who created him.”
2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away; behold, the new has come.”
To say that the old things have passed away means that the whole understanding of the world has changed completely. In order to achieve that change, all the worldly things of my stubbornness and awareness in Jesus Christ must be crucified. I must not add or subtract my subjective perception before God's will.
20 “I have been crucified with Christ…”
Galatians 5:24 “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.” The new change in true knowledge and knowledge, whether through worldly religion and education, or through travel or any great experience Can't expect it. Only in Jesus Christ, in the way of the cross, my everything must die.
2 Corinthians 10:5 "Destroying all arguments, breaking every exaltation against the knowledge of God, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."
1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I have determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.” Knowing only Jesus on the cross, speaking only about Jesus, and enjoying only Jesus is not foolish, religious, or foolish. It is the way to correctly perceive the world and acquire the right life.
2. Control your natural emotions and want the guidance of the Holy Spirit
You cannot lead a normal Christian life with mere religious knowledge. All the apostles, including Peter, experienced various experiences under the guidance of the Lord for three years, but only after they were filled with the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost can you discover how they lived the life of an apostle properly in the book of Acts.
Even reading and understanding the Bible can be narrow in intellectual knowledge. For example, if you look at the words of John 17:3, “This is eternal life, that they know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent,” it seems that knowledge itself can lead to eternal life However, when you see the saying that you cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, you will acknowledge the fact that salvation is not complete just by knowing.
John 3:5 "Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
So, I told you to unite what you know and what you believe.
Ephesians 4:13 says, “Let us all become one in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, so that we may become a perfect man…”
The Jews, especially the scribes and Pharisees, who were religious leaders, said that only knowledge was right, without deeds, and their heart was evil. It is the reality of human society that such a case is now occurring in the church society.
No matter how correct doctrines and traditions are, they cannot be easily realized in the field of my life. It is also not possible for individuals to experience salvation without the work of the Holy Spirit if they believe in Jesus.
Romans 8:2 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death.”
A Christian's feelings must, in fact, be those of the Holy Spirit.
To do this, we must pray, obey, and continue our faith training, fighting our natural self and striving to transform ourselves into the biblical casualty of our new life. So, to become a true Christian, attending church alone is not enough. In order to become a normal believer, we must personally strive to become a life in which Jesus actually claims our personality in the Holy Spirit.
2 Corinthians 13:5 “Examine yourselves, whether ye are in the faith, and prove yourselves, do you not know for yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, otherwise you are rejected.”
Paul said that the subject of life is now Jesus Christ instead of self in Christ.
20 "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me..."
As Peter and John went out to evangelize, they said to the lame beggar at the beautiful gate of the temple.
Acts 3:6 “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I have I give I give you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk…” Peter said to me, “What I have is the Lord in me.” Peter was full of Jesus.
3. The goal of life is summarized in God's salvation idea
Christianity is not a means of living well in the world as a means of culture, but Christianity is the goal of life. The goal of life from birth to death is to live for the will of God.
20 “…Now that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” Paul tells the vision of life. To live in the flesh, that is, to live as a saint, is to live by faith in the Son of God. The life of faith, it can be explained in many ways, but collectively, Paul says this in other scriptures.
Romans 14:8 "If we live, we live for the Lord; if we die, we die for the Lord; therefore whether we live or die, we are the Lord's."
Psalm 23:1-3 “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want; He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside still waters; He refreshes my soul and leads me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.”
To say that He leads you in the path of righteousness for your name's sake is not usually easy to accept with religious and revivalist thoughts. The Bible always tells us that the ultimate goal of our religious life is that God guides and works for His name. .
Ephesians 1:5-6 “He predestined us to be his sons through Jesus Christ according to his good pleasure, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which is freely given to us in him whom he loves.”
Most people realize that life also needs religion for their own sake, but as their faith matures, they come to realize that it is not and that pleasing God is a good result for me.
2 Corinthians 4:11 “For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our mortal flesh.”
However, we are now reminding ourselves of the center of normal Christian life every day, and in the age of all-knowledge science, above all else.
1) Do not lose the reason to understand the world based on the absolute truth of the Bible,
2) Beyond our nature, we long for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit,
3) With the goal of hoping for the kingdom of God only for the glory of God,
I pray that you and I will not be discouraged and that you and I will clearly show our identity as normal Christians.
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Source: Cyber Theological Seminary View Original Author: nulserom