Word for Life in Love— Scripture Meditations By Stephen Brown
Galatians 6:15 (ESV Strong's)
15 For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
This new creation is man made in the image of God. The one who puts on Christ brings into union heaven and earth, making us one with the Lord.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
The sacrifice that pleases the Lord is not what we do, but who we are.
By the word of the Lord the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
The Hebrew words for heavens and earth in the first verse of Genesis have the letter “hey” added to precede the words. This letter represents the breath of God.
The heavens and earth came into being by the word of God. This is Christ who is the Spirit. All things are made through Him and for Him.
Isaac was blind.
Israel was lame
Jesus came so the blind could see and the lame could walk. First to the house of Israel, then the gentiles.
Joshua 3:17 (ESV Strong's)
Now the priests bearing the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood firmly on dry ground in the midst of the Jordan, and all Israel was passing over on dry ground until all the nation finished passing over the Jordan.
The water parted for the Israelites to leave Egypt and parted as they entered the promised land.
The water remains parted until all pass over. So it is for us.
Galatians 5:5-6 (ESV Strong's)
5 For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. 6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.
We live by the righteousness of Christ. It is by our faith in Him we receive the Spirit of His life. This faith is expressed in the receiving and giving of His love, the word spoken into our lives.
Galatians 4:1-7
I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave, though he is the owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set by his father. In the same way we also, when we were children, were enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.
We are born enslaved to the elementary principles of the world. This is the state of the natural man because that is the nature of the world.
The law is a mirror that allows us to begin to see ourselves in the natural state of mankind. That can be seen as the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Our eyes are opened and we see our imperfection, our nakedness.
We can only find perfection when the Spirit of the Son of God has come into our hearts, changing us from a child of man to a child of God. As such, we are heirs to the blessings of heaven.
