Category Archives: Commentary

The Bridge Commentary is a running verse by verse breakdown of the Books of the New Testament including word definitions, significant historical background and comments.

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Why Jesus Substitutionary Death Delivers Us from This Evil World

The Epistle to the Galatians

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In Palmyra on October 17, 1862, during the war, an informer in the town disappeared and the commander-in-charge ordered ten men to be shot in reprisal. Several men were being detained in Palmyra jail as prisoners-of-war at that time, and ten men were selected from among them. Of this number, one was Wm. T. Humphrey, that father of several children, whose wife pleaded for his release. Because of her physical condition and because Humphrey was the father of several children, the commanding officer struck his name off and substituted the name of Hiram Smith, a young man without a family. Smith gave his consent and stated that perhaps it were better for a single man to die rather than a man with a family. At Mt. Pleasant Church cemetery in Mt. Salem Association is a stone erected with an inscription which reads: “This monument is dedicated to the memory of Hiram Smith. The hero that sleeps beneath the sod here who was shot at Palmyra, Oct. 17, 1862, as a substitute for Wm. T. Humphrey, my father. —G. W. Humphrey” 1. Right out of the gate, Paul addresses the idea of Jesus substitutionary work in his opening remarks to the Galatians. In today’s post, we are going to take a look at three simple letters which spell out the principle of substitution.

[Tweet “The gospel can be called the Great Exchange for with the exchange comes our deliverance.”]

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What Is The Lord’s Strong Opinion of Legalism?

An Introduction to the Epistle to the Galatians

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Chuck Swindoll shared this story illustrating the foolishness of legalism in his book, ‘The Grace Awakening.’ He said, “I heard about a fellow who attended a legalistic college where students were to live according to very strict rules. They weren’t supposed to do any work on Sundays. None! Guess what? He spied on his wife and caught her hanging out a few articles of clothing she washed on Sunday afternoon. Are you ready? The guy turned in his wife to the authorities! I’ll bet she was fun to live with the next day or two.” 1 Legalism has no pity on people. Legalism makes my opinion your burden, makes my opinion your boundary, makes my opinion your obligation. 2

[Tweet “In the New Testament, God calls legalists, dogs, evil workers, and mutilators.”]

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What is the Answer to Legalism?

An Introduction to the Epistle to the Galatians

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Legalism teaches that in order to get to heaven, you must obey the law of God and live a good life. In other words, your good deeds will get you into heaven. I once served as a trainer for Evangelism Explosion, taking trainees out into the community once or twice a week, talking to people, and asking the diagnostic questions. Afterward, we correlated the answers we received. Ninety percent of the answers fell into the category of works righteousness. When we asked people what they would say if God were to ask them why He should let them enter heaven, most people replied, “I’ve lived a good life,” “I gave a tithe to the church,” “I worked with the Boy Scouts,” or something along those lines. Their confidence rested on some kind of performance record that they had achieved. Unfortunately, a person’s works are a counterfeit basis for assurance. The Scriptures make very clear that no one is justified by the works of the law (Rom. 3:20; Gal. 3:11). 1

[Tweet “There are modern day Judaizers both of the saved and unsaved variety.”]

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What Is Legalism and Why Is It Deadly?

An Introduction to the Epistle to the Galatians

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The essence of legalism is trusting in religious activity rather than trusting in God. It is putting our confidence in a practice rather than in a Person. And without fail this will lead us to love the practice more than the Person.1 Legalism has many faces. Paul’s dealings with the Galatians over this issue was a major theme of his epistle to them. Let’s take a closer look as we continue our study on the Epistle to the Galatians.

[Tweet “Per Jesus, it’s more valuable to heal a man today than to legally wait to heal him tomorrow.”]

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Do You Look Like the Galatians?

An Introduction to the Epistle to the Galatians

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Most commentators would agree that quotations from the Jewish Scriptures play a key role in the argumentation of Paul’s letter to the Galatians. From there, it is only a short step to the conclusion that the Galatians possessed a fairly broad knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures.1 How’s your knowledge of these same scriptures? In this series on the Epistle to the Galatians, we will take a verse by verse look at Paul’s strong case for justification by faith and how that helps us in our everyday life.

[Tweet “Certain sins exist in every city. Whatever is going in the world often gets into the church.”]

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Why You Can and Should Be Absolutely Positively Persuaded

Roaming through Romans

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We come to the last two verses of Romans eight, verses thirty-eight and thirty-nine. He ends this the way he started this portion of the epistle, strongly positive about all the word of God in the life of a believer. All of His works are marvelous and you can be fully confident in the greatness of your God and what He has provided for you in Christ.

[Tweet “If you desire to be pleasing to God, get fully persuaded of His love for you.”]

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Colossal Conqueror? Jesus Said You Are. Do You Agree?

Roaming through Romans

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When Lord Nelson reported to the British Office of Admirals his great victory over the French fleet in the Battle of the Nile, he said that “victory” was not a large enough word to describe what had taken place. When Paul spoke of the victory which through Jesus Christ he had won over all the ills and adversaries and temptations and woes of life, that greatest of all words, “conqueror,” was not sufficient to describe it; and therefore he said, “more than conquerors, through him that loved us.” 1 Today, we are going to answer the question, Are you a colossal conqueror through Jesus? He thinks you are. The question is, do you agree with Him?

[Tweet “The Greek word ‘conquerors’ means to have complete victory, to prevail totally, to vanquish.”]

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What To Do When It Seems Like You Can Go No More

Roaming through Romans

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Have you ever been to the place where it seems like you are at your wit’s end? One trial after another, one difficult place after another. ‘What’s going on’, you think? The Apostle spoke of these kinds of days as he experienced several periods of time in his own walk. In Romans 8:36, he talks about what it’s like to have a really bad day.  He lays all of this out in verses thirty-five and thirty-six in Romans eight. There’s hope for sure. Great ready to shout.

[Tweet “Even if the trial is long, God’s grace, strength, and power will show up seven-fold to rescue you.”]

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Why the Devil’s Bad Stuff Can Never Separate You from God

Roaming through Romans

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In the previous two week’s, we mentioned how Paul wraps up Romans chapter eight with six concluding questions. Those questions are; What shall we then say to these things?; If God be for us, who can be against us?; He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?; Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?; Who is he that condemns?; and Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? In today’s post, we deal with the very last question of these six questions which appears in Romans 8:35.

[Tweet “Man didn’t establish the relationship with God and man cannot dissolve it.”]

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Why You Should Never Try to Make People Feel Guilty

Roaming through Romans

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After World War 1, 900 German soldiers who had violated international law were summoned to appear before the World Court. Their condemnation was certain. In a dramatic move, however, the former crown prince of Germany volunteered to be their substitute. His offer included taking upon himself both the accusation against them and their penalty. This act, though most noble, was impractical. Although he was royalty, he did not have in his own person the value of the 900.   Our redemption has been purchased by Heaven’s Crown Prince. So don’t depreciate the cross. Don’t underrate Christ’s great sacrifice. It will cost you your soul. It will shut you out from God. It will darken your eternity.  We can lay aside the guilt that drives you to perform because of our royal Substitute! There is no guilt to the person who has come by the way of the cross.  1
[Tweet “Heavens courts have declared you can achieve a standard of righteousness by the work of Jesus.”]
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Why Your Enemies Can Never Be Ultimately Successful Against You

Roaming through Romans

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In Paul’s final segment which ends at verse thirty-nine, the apostle caps off the entire chapter of Romans eight with the primary motivation for all he has discussed up until now, the love of God. He does it with six power packed questions.

[Tweet “If God be for us, what difference does it make whose against us?”]

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What is the Believer in Jesus Staircase to Glorification?

Roaming through Romans

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  The Bible speaks of our calling in Christ. What we are called from and called to? We are called from labor to rest (Matt. 11:28); from death to life (1 John 3:14); from bondage to liberty (Gal 5:13); darkness into light (1 Pet. 2:9); from bondage to peace (1 Cor. 7:15) and finally called to the fellowship of His Son (1 Cor. 1:9) 1 But our calling is only one step of a believers staircase. What are some of the other steps? We will take a look at this in this week’s blog as we continue marching through Romans chapter eight.
[Tweet “Because you have been made the righteousness of God in Christ, you are clothed in the glory of God.”]