Sounds like Paul held an evangelistic series; had some amazing results - - went on to the next venue, then found out that his new believers had heard a new doctrine from another preacher!
Apparently the new preaches was calling into question Paul's credentials, as he spends quite a bit of time documenting his call to the ministry - - not by man, but by God. Before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. What a blessing for Paul to know that his drive to ministry is driven by God, not himself, not someone else's plan for him - - but GOD:)
I love how the apostles got the big picture: how Peter was heading up the ministry to the Jews, Paul was heading up the ministry to the Gentiles. How they worked together, held each other accountable, kept their focus on His mission - - and not their own spotlight. This says to me that the early church was truely God-centered.
And now on to the law/grace question all over again! In Galations here, it sounds like the law was done away with 3:24 "The law was our guardian until Christ came; it protected us until we could be made right with God through faith." and "the law was designed to last only until the coming of the child who was promised."
But then you line that up with Romans (specifically Rom 3:31) and it is pretty clear that the law wasn't done away with -- that there is still a purpose for it. Here's my take at this point -- we'll never be able to obey the law, no matter how hard we try - - it's pointless! God gave us the law so we'd have a clue what his loving universe looks like (love to God/love to man) But, if our focus is on Jesus, and his gift of fulfilling the law in our place; if we claim His gift by faith and ask for the Holy Spirit to guide us, we'll naturally become more and more like Him - - wanting to please Him:) So the focus needs to be faith in Jesus; abandoning our lives to His will -- and He'll give us those new hearts! YAY! What a wonderful Savior to do all the work for us! Why do I make it so hard??
When I began to learn to fly -- I took a look at those aeronautical charts -- and my eyes glazed over. There was no way I understood all the circles, the lines, the numbers - - it was overwhelming. But, as I concentrated on flying -- as I started going on trips that used different parts of the charts, it all started to make sense. If I'd concentrated on only the chart at the beginning of my learning; I never would have understood how to land a plane, how to use the right rudder, how to land safely at an airport. But, as I trusted my instructor to give me the parts of the chart piece by piece; I was able to look at the chart with understanding:) The chart didn't make me a pilot, but the chart pointed how how to safely get where I wanted to be. I couldn't wad up the chart, just because I thought I could trust my instructor to tell me everything; the chart is what confirmed the truth of what my instructor said!
OK -- enough rambling -- I just kindof got caught up in something that made sense to me:):)
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