Title: Traces of Jesus
To the Galatians who are clinging to legalism and, in particular, spiritually unable to break free from the circumcision ceremony, Paul is testifying in many words about God's new covenant through faith alone.
At the end of the epistle, Paul emphasized that the words he wanted to say to the Galatians at the end of the letter was not that he had been circumcised or not, but that he had to become a man of true faith. He said that he had the marks of Jesus on his body, Instead of the traces of Jesus, I would like to share the message with the gracious expression of the traces of Jesus.
1. Those who boast only of Jesus
Apostle Paul's opinion that he has the marks of Jesus means that any Christian who believes in Jesus should be proud of Jesus.
The idea of the Orthodox Presbyterian denomination that promotes a Reformed faith that makes it a principle that Christians think, speak, and act for the glory of God in everything they do is by no means a counter-revolutionary ideology of this age.
This thought is the true biblical belief that has always been shown in the Old and New Testaments and in the early church. There are many cases where the history of the church was ruined by trying to brag about people and put people's circumstances on the line.
A typical example of this is Roman Catholic humanism in the Middle Ages, which disregarded the Bible, took the place of the Pope instead of God, and the priests took its place, and the doctrine of human grace instead of true God's grace was intervened, leading to the sale of atonement tokens. . Those who sympathized with the words of the reformer Luther, who cried out that salvation is achieved through faith alone, rose up, and as Calvin's centered thought on the glory of God surfaced, Protestantism was born.
In fact, Protestantism is not a new creation from the Bible, but it should be evaluated as a movement to restore the original faith through the reformation of the apostolic faith.
If you truly love Jesus and truly believe in Him, it is normal for Jesus to come out if you open your mouth. Human emotions are supposed to call the object by name when they are immersed in something.
Like the Marx and Lenin casualties who said that communists should dream of communism even if they dream, believers in Jesus should be proud of Jesus when they open their mouths.
1 Corinthians 2:2 “For I have determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
14 “But I shall never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”
But in the church, there are those who are for Jesus, but there are those who live for their pride because of Jesus. It means that there are church members who live for their own glory.
John 7:18 “He who speaks for himself seeks only his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true; there is no unrighteousness in him.”
Galatians 5:26 “Let us not provoke one another, envying one another, seeking glory in vain.”
2. The newly created one (rebirth)
If you are a true believer who can be said to have the marks of Jesus, you must have had the experience of being regenerated by the Holy Spirit. The experience of regeneration is the most passively given of the new transformation of the soul in the grace of God, which the Bible describes as a revelatory grace.
John 3:3-5 “Jesus answered and said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? can i fly
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.”
John 3:8 “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going. This is how all those who are born of the Spirit are.”
In the Old Testament times, God gave His people conditions for circumcision. But the important thing is to know that faith precedes the traces of circumcision.
Likewise in the New Testament, there is a baptismal ceremony for becoming a Jesus Christ, but you must have faith first.
Repentance and faith were required when offering the sin offerings in the Old Testament, and salvation is obtained through faith in the New Testament as well.
It is wrong to become a religious person who goes to church only with simple religious principles without a change of heart. It is the fact that without a person's mental change, it has nothing to do with salvation, no matter how many times he attends a church or holds an office. So Paul,
15 It is said, “Circumcision or uncircumcision is nothing, but only the newly created ones.”
The newly created person has a different purpose of life and a different focus of attention than the world. A born-again soul does not understand life in union with the world because of a different vision.
Strictly speaking, those who have been born again have their spiritual eyes open to set their minds on heaven because they can see the kingdom of God. The world after death is assured and we understand the will of God's holy life. Because of this, the view of history is different and the choices are different from those of the world.
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.”
2 Corinthians 4:18 “We do not look at what is seen, but on what is not seen; for what is seen is temporary, but what is not seen is eternal.”
1 Corinthians 1:22-23 “Jews ask for signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness.”
3. Those who have the marks of Jesus on their body
In a very special way, Paul is proud of the circumcision and tries to criticize and correct the Judaists in the Galatian church who are legalistic and hypocritical.
In other words, compared to those who boast of their superficial legalistic thinking, who boast of the traces of circumcision, he rather enjoys the wounds of various sufferings that Jesus suffered.
Like the mark stamped to the slaves at that time to mark their owner, Paul said that he would bear the marks of Jesus on his body as a believer in Jesus or as an apostle.
This trace, stivgmata, is a plural form of expressing the various traces of the life of the crucifixion as a whole.
Some may have said that because of some mysterious bodily wound, but it should be noted that in the text and Paul's response to the current Galatians compared to the traces of circumcision was not meant to refer to such external traces.
Romans 2:28 “For a Jew who is outwardly is not a Jew, and circumcision that is outwardly in the flesh is not circumcision.
[Joint Translation] Therefore, just because you have the appearance of a Jew does not make you a true Jew, and just because you have the marks of circumcision on your body does not mean you are truly circumcised.
Paul regards those who believe in Jesus as those who have received the seal of the Holy Spirit in their hearts.
Ephesians 1:13 “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Spirit.
About how much suffering Paul suffered,
2 Corinthians 11:23-27 “Are they Christ’s servants? I speak frantically, but so am I, because I overworked, and I spent more time in prison, more times beaten, and almost died many times.
24 I was beaten by the Jews five times, less than one forty; 25 I was beaten with rods three times, I was stoned once, I was shipwrecked three times, and I spent a day and a night in the depths.
26 On many journeys, in dangers from rivers, in dangers from robbers, in dangers from our own people, in dangers from Gentiles, in dangers in the city, in dangers in the wilderness, in dangers at sea, in dangers among false brethren; It can be found in the saying, “I was thirsty and thirsty, hungry many times, cold and naked.”
So, Paul said that the signs of the apostles are first to be seen in his expressions rather than the works of any power,
2 Corinthians 12:12 says, “The signs of the apostles are that I did all perseverance and signs and wonders and mighty works among you.”
True Jesuits sometimes suffer from persecution, such as being beaten or having tribulation, so that they may inflict wounds on their body because of Jesus. The traces of Jesus that we want to talk about in the text refer to the traces of the crucifixion we have in our lives as saints.
We know that in today's cultural age, there are people who mistakenly believe that there is an easy truth and an easy way of Jesus. However, the truth is eternal and immutable, and when the truth meets the world, it is bound to collide and cause pain.
However, I believe that the traces of pain will be salvation, grace, and reward through the blood of the Lord in each country. The traces of the life of a Jesuit should be the way of the cross that the Lord shed. On the way of our lives, I pray that the marks of Jesus will be on our bodies, so that the holy stigma will be me and you who show the glory of heaven, and I pray that they will become signs that become the signs of God's people.