This Sunday we turn the page into June, with one more week in Galatians. This week’s passage is a mixed bag for bag. There is some really great stuff in it, and then there’s some really problematic stuff. But overall it offers us an opportunity to… well… go to seminary! That’s right, this week we’re going to dig to hardcore Methodist theology! Sounds riveting, I know. But in all seriousness, it is this theology that we’ll look at on Sunday that is why I am a Methodist pastor. -Pastor Paul
SCRIPTURE: Galatians 3:1-9, 23-29 (NRSVUE)
3 You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly exhibited as crucified! 2 The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you heard? 3 Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh? 4 Did you experience so much for nothing?—if it really was for nothing. 5 Well then, does God supply you with the Spirit and work miracles among you by your doing the works of the law or by your believing what you heard?
6 Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” 7 so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. 8 And the scripture, foreseeing that God would reckon as righteous the gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the gentiles shall be blessed in you.” 9 For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.