Thanking Joan

New creation is the person who has accepted Christ and now he no longer lives but Christ lives in him. In contrast the old creation looks like a sinful person gratifying the sinful nature . The old creation lacks the spirit of god which the new creation now possesses. Being born again is having a fresh birth in Christ and when the old goes and new is come in a person..he is no longer the same old person but has born anew for God.

We become weary living out our faith because we are impatient when we dont see the result at our time,we doubt the goodness of God and we yearn more for our blessings than have Christ formed in us. The promise Paul gives us is we will reap a good harvest if we do not give up. We should do good with our spiritual family first because they are with us and they become our brothers and sisters in Christ and e ought to love them as did Christ for us.

To sow in the flesh means to do the very things the flesh wants to..or sin The synonyms Paul uses are to live and be led by the spirit Sowing to the spirit in the congregation looks like a fruitful harvest of spirit filled Christians and reaping the fruit of the Spirit. The results of a congregation sowing in the spirit is Christ is the head,there is love ,there is fruit of the spirit. `prayers are answered,miracles and wonders happen and there is great annointing of the `holy spirit and the congregation flourishes. When the congregation is sowing in the flesh there will be destruction only.

Caught in sin means you find a person actually committing a sin and disobeying God. Restoration of such a brother or sister looks like carrying his burden of sin and restoring him to life. Restoration should be done by the one who is spiritual and obeying the `holy spirit. `it should be done with love and humility and likeJesus who had the heart of a servant If restoration is done without humility,the person will not be restored ,he will get back to the same sin feeling even more worse and angry.

To crucify the flesh with its passions and desires means dying to the old self and not gratifying the desires of the flesh. To walk in the spirit of God and not continuing with the work of the flesh. No a person cannot be a Christian without crucifying the flesh. Christian means a follower of Christ and who follows Christ and not self. we have produced such a crop of luke warm Christians because most of us have not really crucified self to live for the `lord. We are luke warm because we hear from the spirt and do works of the flesh..

The Holy spirit produces this fruit in us by allowing us to grow and lead us step by step. He guides us and counsels us through various trials of life and gives us the grace to overcome and bear fruit. Through the `holy spirit we are given the grace to abide and remain in Jesus and we are able to produce fruit. The theological term for this process is sanctification or even refining. A person who is a Christian for years will not bear fruit if he is in name only and has not given his heart to the `lord. There is absolutely no yielding to the Holy spirit and therefore no fruit. James says that faith must accompany deeds. `it also means that if i profess Faith in Christ `i must also reflect the nature of Christ by showing Christ like action which is evident by the fruit we bear in our lives. Faith is Christ is bearing fruit of the Spirit and putting it into action Yes.. harsh to the one who only proclaims to have faith but no action or no evidence of any fruit of the spirit.

Patient forbearance is important personal character element because it helps us to endure and tolerate any person . We need to have it to reflect the nature of Christ in us. It is important for peace in the family and Christian community because we can easily get along with everyone and keep and pursue peace at all times.

God is love. Only when we have God in our lives can we love.... When God is in us we have love and this love enables us to love our neighbor. Now only love can bring joy and peace. With God's love in our hearts we are joyful and peaceful.

Some Christians resist Paul's warnings because they have actually not surrendered their lives totally to Christ. Only a person who is deeply rooted in Christ and wants to live for Christ will not gratify the desires of flesh or not sin. If the Scriptures had to be reworded accordingly it could be something like this.... God is love,He loves us no matter what.we are but weak!

If I were asked to divide the works of the flesh into different groups they would be Sins committed against God, Sins against others. or Sins of the body sins of the mind.

We are told that its impossible for a Christian to live a sinless life. Bit Vs16-18 teach us that we must live by the Spirit of God and then it is possible for us not to gratify the desires of the flesh. We have to be led by the Spirit not to sin. While we yield to the spirit of God we have the power of the Holy spirit to suppress our old nature. Only when we totally follow the leading of the spirit however difficult it may seem we are able to walk in freedom from sin and not do the things of our old sinful nature. People who claim that its impossible not to sin are surely not the ones who have crucified their flesh and Christ does not live in the them. there is no Christ formed in the person at all. The one who is Spirit led only can overcome sin.

Yes.. seen that Christians have acted lawless Spirit led Christians fulfill the spirit of the Law by fulfilling the Law of Christ.. that is to love the Lord Almighty with all our heart and strength and love others as self. By yielding to the Spirit of God and walking in obedience to the voice of the Holy spirit. Backbiting and rudeness in a congregation reveals that the spiritual environment is not good and there is no submission to the will of God. There is no walking in the spirit but walking in the flesh which brings about rudeness and backbiting.

The offense of the cross is Jesus is crucified and the death of Jesus on the cross saved mankind and not the law of the Jews. The cross offends people in our day is one it points out the sin in us and secondly people still hold to law and not grace that we have attained by the death of Jesus on the cross. Yes.. the proclanation of the cross is softened by law and wrong ideas of man.

The spirit has become the new mark of identity of the believer because it has made a sons of God a new creation in Jesus Christ.Our identity has been changed to heirs of God. According to Vs 6 the presence of the Holy spirit is faith expressing itself through love.

Falling from grace means turning away from the truth of the Gospel and going back to the law. The fact that they went back to the law and alienated from Christ caused this fall from grace. Present day Christian legalism can cause such a fall from grace if they get back to law and traditions of men .

Earthly parents take lot of trouble ,sacrfice and pain to bring their children up with the right values and see that they do not go astray. But if they disobey and do things which the parents would not want them to do it would bring them real grief, LIkewise, Paul took a lot of trouble to see the Galatians reborn into the family of God just as a mother would bear pains to bring forth a child and gave them the truth of the Gospel, he would be grieved to see them going astray from the truth. When Christ is formed in a person you are entirely a new creation. The old nature is gone a new is come and you would definetley reflect the nature of Christ in you. The process involved in spiritual formation is prayer.continual renewing of one's self with the Word of God,repenting with humility before God each day of our life and working out salvation with trembling and fear.

Celebrating special worship days essentially is not wrong as long as they are meant to worship and give glory to the Lord. If they are used for entertainment and anything to please self and people there is no point in such celebrations Paul grieved over the Galatians observances because they were going back to observing such celebrations as they did while they were still pagans. It would enslave them to legalism than ebing set free by the grace of God. The significance this had in movement towards Judaism is that they would again get into the law of observing such things and would mean getting back to be enslaved to law. We will be blessed by ibserving special days in our era only and only when we keep Jesus as the centre of our worship and celebration. Observance of special days can be legalistic for Christians if they are made compulsory to observe and made a law to celebrate such days. It then becomes legalistic.

God the Father has put in us the Spirit of his Son Jesus and the Spirit of God enables us to call God our Father or Abba thus demonstrating the filling of the Spirit in us has made us full sons. Abba is a term of endearment and shows a close relationship a son has with his Father. Being heirs of God means we are no longer slaves but we have full rights to everything our Father has . We have rights to the inheritance in the Kingdom and we enjoy every privilege as a son of God. We are sons in the same sense as Jesus is the son of God as we are called the sons of God once we are adopted in the Kingdom of God. Yes hard to comprehend but if I am in full obdedience to the Father and love my Father like Jesus did I am the son of God.

Both Jews and Gentiles were enslaved to the law. The word redeem means liberate and Christ has liberated us from law and sin.The implication of adoption regardin a person's legal and spiritual rights mean he receives every right as a son from the Father. The Father gives us the same rights as Jesus our older brother has and we coheirs in the inheritance of the Kingdom of God. We are heirs according to the promise of God made to Abraham.

It took so long for the Messiah to come because God had a appointed and the right time in His mind to send his Son and the prophesy in the Scriptures had to be fulfilled too. The first century world made it a fertile ground for the revelation of the Messiah and the spread of Gospel because the timing was right religiously politically, commercially and culturally. All I can say is God had planned a perfect plan of his Son's coming to the world and then receive him as the Messaih.

Yes the Jewish Christians thought Gentiles were second class Christians and they considered themselves superior as Law keepers and kept them away. Our basis of unity in Christ is through our baptism in Christ. This unity pulls down barriers by showing us we are all one in Christ. Yes there may be certain groups in the church who may be regarded as second class Christians on the basis of their race,culture , financial status,education etc. We must be enlightened with the example of Christ who came to serve and not to be served and lead by example of Christ by treating all as one as God looks upon as one .

The purpose of the Law was to keep away people from trangressions or sinning It was not intended to justify a person. The law restrained sin by showing the consequences of falling into sin. It prevented people to sin and there was fear to disobey the Law. The law showed what was right and wrong and what sin was and therefore anyone who committed sin was exposed by the law

We are no longer under the curse of the law because of the finished work of Jesus on the cross and paying for our sins in full. Christ died on the cross and redeemed us from every curse of the law and now one who believes in Jesus and confesses that he is Lord is saved. The Gentiles received the Spirit of God through faith

Abraham's faith in God is commendable. He is called the Father of faith. His faith in God credited him as a righteous man of God. We are the descendants of Abraham ,he is our father of faith and we are called Abraham's children.

Paul argues that salvation is received by faith from the presence of the Spirit saying that they received the Spirit of God not by keeping the law but by believing what they heard and they heard the word of God. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. The Holy spirit worked miracles not because they kept the Law but by believing the word of God. Therefore one can be saved by faith in Gd through the power of the Holyspirit working in them. The spiritual environment in the churches of the Galatian churches shows us they were becoming foolish by believing the ideas of the Judaisers. We can create a dynamic environment in our church by following this message o faith that Paul preaches that we are saved by faith and not works.