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The White Color of Milk

The White Color of Milk

Words of Faith 5-3-19

Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2019

Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com

Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL

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Galatians 1

     [1] Paul, an apostle--sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead-- [2] and all the brothers with me, To the churches in Galatia:

 

      One of the most influential of all Paul's writings is his short letter to the Galatians.  It is sometimes called "little Romans" because it expresses the core teaching of Paul that we are justified by grace through faith rather than by works.  For this reason, Galatians played a key role in defining the doctrine of the early church and became the cornerstone of the Protestant Reformation.  Luther was so attached to the letter to the Galatians that he sometimes called it his "wife."

      This letter was one of Paul's earliest.  It may have even been his first letter that has survived.  Written in about 48AD after Paul's first missionary journey, Galatians was penned in Antioch Syria before the Jerusalem Council that is recorded in Acts 15.

      Peter came from Jerusalem to visit the leaders at this great missionary Church, but he withdrew from the Gentile Christians as was the Jewish custom.  Paul publicly rebuked Peter for this rejection of the very grace that had become the core of the early Christian movement.  In Galatians, we can hear the strong arguments that would become the focus of the Jerusalem Council.

      False teachers had infiltrated the churches in Galatia denying Paul's authority as an apostle and teaching that circumcision was necessary for salvation.  Paul reacted strongly to these developments and the threat of legalism.  As a result, this letter laid the foundation for the Jerusalem Council and helped to settle the clarity of God's truth that we are indeed saved by grace.

       The name Galatia refers to a region that is now in modern Turkey where Paul visited on his first and second missionary journeys.  It is interesting however that the word galatia actually means "white like the color of milk."  There is an image of great truth embedded in the very name of this place and this letter.

       The letter to the Galatians will speak to us of grace that is entirely beyond our comprehension, a grace that takes a soul that is tattered and dirty and makes it clean and white like the color of milk.  This is the justifying work of Jesus.  This is the mercy expressed to us in Christ.  This is the offer of God in Jesus that we can only receive by faith.  This is the wonder of Galatians.

        Are you ready for the spilling of that white color of milk upon your life and the terrain of your experience?  Are you ready for the freshness of new life that can only splash upon you by the deliberate grace of the Lord Jesus?

 

       O God, make me clean by faith.  Wash me whiter than snow.  Make me clean and fresh like the color of milk so that I may serve you in new life.  In Jesus' Name. 

 

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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, and our website, and our church app excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2010 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.  

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