Galatians(二）

Am i free in the Gospel of grace?

free or none of freedom

Galatians deals with the important issues:

law,  grace,  works,  the gospel,  Jesus Christ,  the Holy Spirit,  our lord's death,  His resurrection,

salvation,  sanctification,  --- all of these critical gospel -related realities are part and parcel of the book of Galatians.

I focus on "freedom", freedom: 

Freedom from sin ,  freedom from judgement,  freedom from hell,  freedom from all forms of spiritual bondage,  and liberation into the glorious purposes and grace of God. It is all the comments about spiritual freedom.  

It is so relevant,  then  i felt my freedom is an important thing to talk about.  It is certainly popular,  I  wanna give myself enough and research more in HIM.

Personally freedom is a big thing.

Free people think freedom comes from being free to do whatever you want to do. To hear whatever 

U want to hear and only what U want to hear,  and to have no one impose on U anything that  U don't want. Those are about as clear as they're going to get, right?

Back to the former issues, it has been call the Magna Carta of spiritual  freedom.  It has been called the Christian's Declaration of Independence.  It has been  identified as the battle cry of the Reformation.  And, actually the key figure in that Reformation, as we look back at his history, was a man named Martin Luther, who was a Catholic monk.  When he came to the study of the book of Galatians, discovered the true gospel, the gospel of salvation by grace through faith,  and he says,"

The epistle to the Galatians is my epistle."

That's a quote from Luther. 

Martin Luther, O.S.A. (/ˈluːθər/;[1] German: [ˈmaɐ̯tiːn ˈlʊtɐ]; 10 November 1483[2]– 18 February 1546) was a German professor of theology, composer, priest, monk,[3] and a seminal figure in the Protestant Reformation. 

Martin Luther

Martin Luther (1529) by Lucas Cranach the Elder

Born10 November 1483

Eisleben, County of Mansfeld in the Holy Roman Empire

Died  18 February 1546(aged 62)

Luther taught that salvation and, consequently, eternal life are not earned by good deeds but are received only as the free gift of God's grace through the believer's faith in Jesus Christ as redeemer from sin. His theology challenged the authority and office of the Popeby teaching that the Bible is the only source of divinely revealed knowledge from God[4]and opposed sacerdotalism by considering all baptized Christians to be a holy priesthood.[5] Those who identify with these, and all of Luther's wider teachings, are called Lutherans, though Luther insisted on Christian or Evangelical (German: evangelisch) as the only acceptable names for individuals who professed Christ.

His translation of the Bible into the German vernacular (instead of Latin) made it more accessible to the laity, an event that had a tremendous impact on both the church and German culture. It fostered the development of a standard version of the German language, added several principles to the art of translation,[6] and influenced the writing of an English translation, the Tyndale Bible.[7] His hymns influenced the development of singing in Protestant churches.[8] His marriage to Katharina von Bora, a former nun, set a model for the practice of clerical marriage, allowing Protestant clergy to marry.[9]

In two of his later works, Luther expressed antagonistic views towards Jews.[10] His rhetoric was not alone directed at Jews, but also towards Roman Catholics (whom Protestants labeled "Papists"), Anabaptists, and nontrinitarian Christians.[11] Martin Luther died in 1546, with his decree of excommunication by Pope Leo X still effective. On his deathbed, Luther was asked: "Are you ready to die trusting in your Lord Jesus Christ and to confess the doctrine which you have taught in his name?" He answered "Yes", before taking his final breath.[12]

Martin Luther was born to Hans Luder (or Ludher, later Luther)[13] and his wife Margarethe (née Lindemann) on 10 November 1483 in Eisleben, County of Mansfeld in the Holy Roman Empire. The county was a small territory geographically located near the Electorate of Saxony to which it was eventually mediatized in 1580; the county was included in the Upper Saxon Circle. Through Luther's lifetime, the electorate was controlled by the Ernestine line of the House of Wettin. Luther was baptized the next morning on the feast day of St. Martin of Tours. His family moved to Mansfeld in 1484, where his father was a leaseholder of copper mines and smelters[14] and served as one of four citizen representatives on the local council. Hans Luther was chosen a town councilor in 1492.[15][13] The religious scholar Martin Marty describes Luther's mother as a hard-working woman of "trading-class stock and middling means" and notes that Luther's enemies later wrongly described her as a whore and bath attendant.[13]

He had several brothers and sisters, and is known to have been close to one of them, Jacob.[16] Hans Luther was ambitious for himself and his family, and he was determined to see Martin, his eldest son, become a lawyer. He sent Martin to Latin schools in Mansfeld, then Magdeburg in 1497, where he attended a school operated by a lay group called the Brethren of the Common Life, and Eisenach in 1498.[17] The three schools focused on the so-called "trivium": grammar, rhetoric, and logic. Luther later compared his education there to purgatory and hell.[18]

In 1501, at the age of 17, he entered the University of Erfurt, which he later described as a beerhouse and whorehouse.[19] He was made to wake at four every morning for what has been described as "a day of rote learning and often wearying spiritual exercises."[19] He received his master's degree in 1505.[20]

Luther as a friar, with tonsure.

In accordance with his father's wishes, Luther enrolled in law school at the same university that year but dropped out almost immediately, believing that law represented uncertainty.[20] Luther sought assurances about life and was drawn to theology and philosophy, expressing particular interest in Aristotle, William of Ockham, and Gabriel Biel.[20] He was deeply influenced by two tutors, Bartholomaeus Arnoldi von Usingen and Jodocus Trutfetter, who taught him to be suspicious of even the greatest thinkers[20] and to test everything himself by experience.[21]

Philosophy proved to be unsatisfying, offering assurance about the use of reason but none about loving God, which to Luther was more important. Reason could not lead men to God, he felt, and he thereafter developed a love-hate relationship with Aristotle over the latter's emphasis on reason.[21]For Luther, reason could be used to question men and institutions, but not God. Human beings could learn about God only through divine revelation, he believed, and Scripture therefore became increasingly important to him.[21]

On 2 July 1505, while returning to university on horseback after a trip home, a lightning bolt struck near Luther during a thunderstorm. Later telling his father he was terrified of death and divine judgment, he cried out, "Help! Saint Anna, I will become a monk!"[22][23] He came to view his cry for help as a vow he could never break. He left law school, sold his books, and entered St. Augustine's Monastery in Erfurt on 17 July 1505.[24] One friend blamed the decision on Luther's sadness over the deaths of two friends. Luther himself seemed saddened by the move. Those who attended a farewell supper walked him to the door of the Black Cloister. "This day you see me, and then, not ever again," he said.[21] His father was furious over what he saw as a waste of Luther's education.[25]

A posthumous portrait of Luther as an Augustinian friar.

Luther dedicated himself to the Augustinian order, devoting himself to fasting, long hours in prayer, pilgrimage, and frequent confession.[26] Luther described this period of his life as one of deep spiritual despair. He said, "I lost touch with Christ the Savior and Comforter, and made of him the jailer and hangman of my poor soul."[27] Johann von Staupitz, his superior, pointed Luther's mind away from continual reflection upon his sins toward the merits of Christ. He taught that true repentance does not involve self-inflicted penances and punishments but rather a change of heart.[28]

On 3 April 1507, Jerome Schultz (lat.Hieronymus Scultetus), the Bishop of Brandenburg, ordained Luther in Erfurt Cathedral. In 1508, von Staupitz, first dean of the newly founded University of Wittenberg, sent for Luther, to teach theology.[28][29] He received a bachelor's degree in Biblical studies on 9 March 1508, and another bachelor's degree in the Sentences by Peter Lombard in 1509.[30]

On 19 October 1512, he was awarded his Doctor of Theology and, on 21 October 1512, was received into the senate of the theological faculty of the University of Wittenberg,[31] having succeeded Staupitz as chair of theology.[32] He spent the rest of his career in this position at the University of Wittenberg.

He was made provincial vicar of Saxony and Thuringia by his religious order in 1515. This meant he was to visit and oversee each of eleven monasteries in his province.[33]

(repost from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Luther then also said," To it  I am, as it were, married.  Galatians is my Katherine."

You remember, if U read the backgrounders of Luther, know more about him, that he married Katherine Von Bora, whom he called Katy, and he said : 

"spiritually speaking, Galatians is my Katherine."

It is a magic talk about an incredible book.  We are going to be spending enough time and long weeks in it , not in any hurry.

Galatians 1  , i go down to verse 15, 

" When God, who had set me apart even from my mother's womb and called me through His grace , was pleased to reveal his Son in me so that  I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately consult with flesh and blood.  I didn't even go to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me ...... i went to Arabia".

Lord , I, with my full hearts, read the Bible, thank U for the freedom that is ours in  Christ , for freedom , freedom from sin,  freedom from death , freedom from judgment,  freedom from punishment. Who has set me free?

As Paul said :

" I count all things to be loss in  view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, to be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith."

What a gift in my road. The only way to freedom from sin's power, from sin's penalty, from sin's presence is to receive the righteousness that comes from heaven and is granted to those who put their trust in HIM.

WORLD, BIG WORLD

Finished on 2018-11-13

Shared to my dear friends .

God bless U.