Scripture Reading: Gal. 1:3-4, 11-16

Ⅰ　

The subject of the book of Galatians is the rescue of the distracted believers out of the evil religious age according to the will of God—1:3-5; Eph. 1:5, 9, 11, 22-23; Heb. 10:5-10; Rom. 12:2, 4-5; Gal. 6:15; Col. 3:10:

A　

An age refers to a section, an aspect, the present or modern appearance, of the world as the satanic system, which is used by Satan to usurp and occupy God's people to keep them away from God and His purpose—Eph. 2:2; 1 John 2:14-15.

B　

According to the context of this book, the present evil age here refers to the religious world, the religious course of the world, the Jewish religion, which became formal in letter, deadening in quenching the Spirit, killing in man's communication with God in life, and contending with the gospel of Christ in God's New Testament economy—Gal. 6:14-15; 1:6-16; 2 Cor. 3:6; Phil. 3:2-3; John 16:2.

C　

The purpose of Christ's giving Himself for our sins was to rescue us, to pluck us out, to extricate us, from the Jewish religion, the present evil age; this is to release God's chosen people from the custody of the law (Gal. 3:23), to bring them out of the sheepfold (John 10:1, 3, 16) according to the will of God (cf. 1 Tim. 1:3-4):

１　

According to the revelation of the typology in Song of Songs, Christ leads His loving seeker into her spirit, and in her spirit in fellowship with Him, she receives the revelation of how to leave the place where she is kept away from the church to go forth on the footsteps of the flock—1:4b-8.

２　

The flock is the church as the place where Christ pastures, shepherds and feeds, His saints—John 10:16; Acts 20:28; 1 Pet. 5:2; Psa. 23.

３　

The Lord's seeker was seeking after the Lord for her own satisfaction, but the Lord's concern for His saved sinners is not just for their satisfaction but for God's eternal economy; God's economy is to save sinners to gain the churches, so that the essence of these churches can become the organic Body of Christ as the precursor for the consummation of the New Jerusalem—Rom. 5:10; Rev. 1:11-12; Eph. 1:22-23; Rev. 19:7-9; 21:2.

D　

We must overcome the present evil age of today's degraded Christendom with its Juda-istic system by holding to the teaching of the apostles (the New Testament) through the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit—Acts 2:42; 1 Tim. 1:3-4.

E　

Judaism has earthly promises with earthly blessings, but in the new testament we have the all-inclusive Spirit as the totality of the unsearchable riches of Christ to be our unique blessing for us to bless others to issue in the fullness of God—Gen. 12:2; Gal. 3:14; Eph. 3:8; 1:3; Luke 12:21; Rev. 2:9; 2 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 3:19b:

１　

We bless others with the eternal blessing of the Triune God, which is the Triune God dispensing Himself in His Divine Trinity into us for our enjoyment—Num. 6:23-27; 2 Cor. 13:14.

２　

We need to pray ourselves into God so that we may remain in Him continually to receive the Spirit as our unsearchably rich life supply for nourishing ourselves and those under our care—Luke 11:1-13.

３　

This will make us rich toward God so that we can enrich others with all that God is to issue in His fullness—12:21; Rev. 2:9; 2 Cor. 6:10; Eph. 3:19b.

F　

Judaism has the law of letters, but in the new testament we have the law of the Spirit of life—Rom. 8:2; Heb. 8:10; Rom. 2:28-29; 5:20:

１　

Judaism mis-positioned the law, which was given by God as a side line to Christ, as the main line in His economy, misapplied the dispensational Sabbath-keeping, misinterpreted the physical circumcision, and overstretched the holy diet—v. 20; Matt. 11:28-30; Col. 2:11-12; Gal. 5:6; 6:15; Acts 10:11-16, 34-35.

２　

The old covenant, the law, is the testimony of God, the portrait of God, showing us who God is and exposing man, subduing man, and conducting God's chosen ones to Christ—Psa. 78:5; 119:88b; Gen. 1:26; Rom. 3:19-20; Gal. 3:23-25; John 10:9-10.

３　

The old covenant of the law is a portrait of God, but the new covenant of grace is the person of God—1:16-17.

４　

The law makes demands upon man according to what God is; grace supplies man with what God is to meet what God demands—1 Cor. 15:10.

５　

When we believe into Christ, the person of this portrait comes into us and He ful-fills in us the righteous requirements of the law as we walk according to the spirit and set our mind on the spirit—Ezek. 36:26-27; Rom. 8:2, 4, 6, 10.

６　

In the new covenant God puts Himself into His chosen people as their life, and this life is a law, a spontaneous, automatic principle—Heb. 8:10; Rom. 8:2.

７　

In essence this law is God in Christ as the Spirit, and in function it has the capacity to deify us and to constitute us the members of the Body of Christ with all kinds of functions—vv. 10, 6, 11, 28-29.

G　

Judaism has mediatorial priests, but in the new testament all the believers are priests to be a holy and royal priesthood—Rev. 1:5b-6; 2:6; 1 Pet. 2:5, 9.

H　

Judaism has a material temple, but in the new testament the temple is a spiritual house, a dwelling place of God in spirit—Eph. 2:21-22:

１　

In Judaism the worshippers and the place of worship are two different things, but in the new testament the place of worship is the worshipper—John 4:24; 1 Cor. 3:17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Acts 2:46; 5:42.

２　

The Father's house, typified by the temple, is a divine and human incorporation of the processed and consummated God constituted with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed elect—John 14:20, 23; 1 Tim. 3:15; Rev. 21:3, 22.

Ⅱ　

God's Son is versus man's religion—Gal. 1:11-16:

A　

We all need to have a direct, personal, living contact with the living person of the Son of God; this is versus man's religion; if we worship God, serve God, behave ourselves, and improve ourselves without the presence of Christ, that is a religion; the apostle was one who lived and acted in the presence of Christ, according to the index of His whole person expressed in His eyes, in the closest and most intimate contact with him—2 Cor. 2:10.

B　

The desire of God's heart is to reveal His Son in us that we may know Him, receive Him as our life (John 17:3; 3:16), and become the sons of God (1:12; Gal. 4:5-6).

C　

"This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!" (Matt. 17:5); when the disciples lifted up their eyes, "they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone" (v. 8).

D　

The focal point of the Bible is not practices, doctrines, or ordinances—it is the living person of the Son of God, who is the embodiment of the Triune God realized as the all-inclusive Spirit in our spirit for us to enjoy Him, partake of His riches, and live Him— 1 Cor. 15:45b; 2 Cor. 3:17; Phil. 1:19; Gal. 6:18:

１　

In the eyes of God there is no place for religion or tradition—only the living person of His Son has a place; God cares only for this living person, not for anything else— Col. 1:18b; 2:16-17; 3:10b-11; Mark 9:7-8.

２　

Without this living person as the reality and content of the church life, even the church life will become a tradition; the church is the Body of this person, His full-ness, His practical and living expression—Eph. 1:22-23; 3:8-11, 16-19.

Ⅲ　

Nothing is more pleasing to God than the unveiling, the revelation, of the living person of the Son of God in us—Gal. 1:15a, 16a; 2 Cor. 3:14-17; 4:3-6:

A　

The more inward, subjective revelation we receive of the Son of God, the more He will live in us; the more He lives in us, the more He will become to us the reality of the all-inclusive land as the blessing of Abraham, the blessing of the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit—Gal. 2:20; 3:14.

B　

If we drop our concepts, turn our heart to the Lord, pay attention to the spirit, and spend time in the Word in a spirit and atmosphere of prayer, Christ will be revealed in us, live in us, and be formed in us—1:16-17; 2:20; 4:19:

１　

We must drop our concepts; every concept, whether spiritual or carnal, is a veil; this inward revelation is in our spirit through our enlightened mind—2 Cor. 3:14-15; 4:4; Eph. 1:17-18; Luke 24:45.

２　

We must turn our heart to the Lord; the more we turn our heart to the Lord, the less ground the god of this age will have in our life and in our being, and we will be under the shining of the heavenly light to receive the inward revelation of this living person—2 Cor. 3:16, 18; 4:4; cf. Matt. 4:8-11.

３　

We must care for and pay attention to our spirit; it is in our spirit that the Spirit is shining to reveal Christ in us and to speak to us concerning Christ—Eph. 1:17; 3:5; cf. Rev. 1:10; 2:7; 4:2; 17:3; 21:10.

４　

We must pray-read and muse upon the Word—Eph. 6:17-18; Psa. 119:15.

C　

We need to be full of the revelation of the Son of God and thereby become a new creation with Christ living in us, being formed in us, and being enjoyed by us continually as the all-inclusive Spirit—Gal. 6:14-15.

D　

"If we drop our concepts, turn our heart to the Lord, pay attention to the spirit, and spend time in the Word, Christ will be revealed in us, He will live in us, and He will be formed in us. Day by day, He will become more of an enjoyment to us. As a result, this living Person will make us a new creation in a practical way…Paul's burden in writing the book of Galatians, and our need today, is that we be brought into a state where we are full of the revelation of the Son of God and thereby become a new creation with Christ living in us, being formed in us, and being enjoyed by us continually as the all-inclusive Spirit" (Life-study of Galatians, pp. 39-40).