Study Desk

So I will gladly give all that I have and all that I am. Will you love me less for loving you too much?

Have you been thinking all along that we have been defending ourselves to you? Actually, we have been speaking to God as followers of Christ. But, my friends, we did it all for your good.

I am on my way to visit you for the third time. And as the Scriptures say, "Any charges must be proved true by at least two or three witnesses."

This should prove to you that I am speaking for Christ. When he corrects you, he won't be weak. He will be powerful!

Final Warnings and Greetings I am on my way to visit you for the third time. And as the Scriptures say, "Any charges must be proved true by at least two or three witnesses." During my second visit I warned you that I would punish you and anyone else who doesn't stop sinning. I am far away from you now, but I give you the same warning. This should prove to you that I am speaking for Christ. When he corrects you, he won't be weak. He will be powerful! Although he was weak when he was nailed to the cross, he now lives by the power of God. We are weak, just as Christ was. But you will see that we will live by the power of God, just as Christ does. Test yourselves and find out if you really are true to your faith. If you pass the test, you will discover that Christ is living in you. But if Christ isn't living in you, you have failed. I hope you will discover that we have not failed. We pray that you will stop doing evil things. We don't pray like this to make ourselves look good, but to get you to do right, even if we are failures. All we can do is to follow the truth and not fight against it. Even though we are weak, we are glad that you are strong, and we pray that you will do even better. I am writing these things to you before I arrive. This way I won't have to be hard on you when I use the authority that the Lord has given me. I was given this authority, so that I could help you and not destroy you. Good-by, my friends. Do better and pay attention to what I have said. Try to get along and live peacefully with each other. Now I pray that God, who gives love and peace, will be with you. Give each other a warm greeting. All of God's people send their greetings. I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will bless you and be kind to you! May God bless you with his love, and may the Holy Spirit join all your hearts together.

Christ obeyed God our Father and gave himself as a sacrifice for our sins to rescue us from this evil world.

Three years later I went to visit Peter in Jerusalem and stayed with him for fifteen days.

But I went there because God had told me to go, and I explained the good news that I had been preaching to the Gentiles. Then I met privately with the ones who seemed to be the most important leaders. I wanted to make sure that my work in the past and my future work would not be for nothing.

But we wanted you to have the true message. That's why we didn't give in to them, not even for a second.

They realized that God had sent me with the good news for Gentiles, and that he had sent Peter with the same message for Jews.

When we Jews started looking for a way to please God, we discovered that we are sinners too. Does this mean that Christ is the one who makes us sinners? No, it doesn't!

It was the Law itself that killed me and freed me from its power, so that I could live for God. I have been nailed to the cross with Christ.

I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.

I don't turn my back on God's undeserved kindness. If we can be acceptable to God by obeying the Law, it was useless for Christ to die.

Have you gone through all of this for nothing? Is it all really for nothing?

But the Scriptures say that sin controls everyone, so that God's promises will be for anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ.

And so, you should understand that everyone who has faith is a child of Abraham. Long ago the Scriptures said that God would accept the Gentiles because of their faith. That's why God told Abraham the good news that all nations would be blessed because of him. This means that everyone who has faith will share in the blessings that were given to Abraham because of his faith. Anyone who tries to please God by obeying the Law is under a curse. The Scriptures say, "Everyone who doesn't obey everything in the Law is under a curse." No one can please God by obeying the Law. The Scriptures also say, "The people God accepts because of their faith will live." The Law isn't based on faith. It promises life only to people who obey its commands. But Christ rescued us from the Law's curse, when he became a curse in our place. This is because the Scriptures say that anyone who is nailed to a tree is under a curse. And because of what Jesus Christ has done, the blessing that was promised to Abraham was taken to the Gentiles. This happened so that by faith we would be given the promised Holy Spirit. My friends, I will use an everyday example to explain what I mean. Once someone agrees to something, no one else can change or cancel the agreement. That is how it is with the promises God made to Abraham and his descendant. The promises were not made to many descendants, but only to one, and that one is Christ. What I am saying is that the Law cannot change or cancel God's promise that was made 430 years before the Law was given. If we have to obey the Law in order to receive God's blessings, those blessings don't really come to us because of God's promise. But God was kind to Abraham and made him a promise. What is the use of the Law? It was given later to show that we sin. But it was only supposed to last until the coming of that descendant who was given the promise. In fact, angels gave the Law to Moses, and he gave it to the people. There is only one God, and the Law did not come directly from him. Does the Law disagree with God's promises? No, it doesn't! If any law could give life to us, we could become acceptable to God by obeying that law. But the Scriptures say that sin controls everyone, so that God's promises will be for anyone who has faith in Jesus Christ. The Law controlled us and kept us under its power until the time came when we would have faith. In fact, the Law was our teacher. It was supposed to teach us until we had faith and were acceptable to God. But once a person has learned to have faith, there is no more need to have the Law as a teacher. All of you are God's children because of your faith in Christ Jesus. And when you were baptized, it was as though you had put on Christ in the same way you put on new clothes. Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes each of you equal with each other, whether you are a Jew or a Greek, a slave or a free person, a man or a woman. So if you belong to Christ, you are now part of Abraham's family, and you will be given what God has promised.

Those people may be paying you a lot of attention, but it isn't for your good. They only want to keep you away from me, so you will pay them a lot of attention.

All of this has another meaning as well. Each of the two women stands for one of the agreements God made with his people. Hagar, the slave woman, stands for the agreement that was made at Mount Sinai. Everyone born into her family is a slave.

Hagar also stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and for the present city of Jerusalem. She and her children are slaves.