Come Follow Me LDS- Galatians Part 1

'Law & Curses, Faith & Oaths'
- Why did Paul go to Arabia?'
- Paul's contention with Peter on Circumcision for Gentiles
- The 'Law' is Cursed. It is a dead law.
- Faith is coupled with 'Grace'. It is faith in God's grace.
- Faith in Jesus Christ makes us the 'seed' of Abraham
- Paul covers the 'Oath and Covenant' of the Melchizedek Priesthood
- The 'Oath' is not from us, but from the Father

 

 Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon New Testament Galatians Bible

 

in this episode we're gonna talk about

law and curses faith and O's here we go

[Music]

in this epistle of Galatians Paul is

writing to probably several different

city-states or areas of Turkey that is

where Galatia was Galatia actually was a

people or the Gauls where a people that

had invaded into Asia Minor here

the Gauls interestingly enough are also

related in their names to the Celts so

if you use G in place of C you'd have

the Gelts or the gulls and pretty

interesting the Gauls have quite a

history throughout a lot of Europe and

Galatia has only been a part of the

Roman Empire for about 75 80 years at

this time and Paul opens up the letter

here stating the following in verse 1

Paul an apostle not of men neither by

man but by Jesus Christ and god the

father who raised him from the dead

there's two things here i want to cover

number one is that he's claiming again

right up front where his priesthood

comes from where his authority is from

it is not given to him by a school right

it's not given to him because of his

education it is given to him by Jesus

Christ so he has the authority of the

priesthood of Jesus Christ and number

two is again a very clear distinction

here between a Heavenly Father and the

Son of God again it says but by Jesus

Christ and god the father who raised him

from the dead so this is a separate

being that raised Jesus from the dead

and then again like with the Corinthians

he wants to make sure that the Galatians

are not following false prophets and

false doctrine and again you can just

imagine the difficulty that Paul has

here as the primary apostle in preaching

the new covenant right in preaching the

gospel of Jesus Christ to the heathens

here to those that are Hellenized and

pagans

and trying to keep all of them active

think how difficult it is especially if

you imagine coming out from Jerusalem

going out to a completely different

people a different race a different

culture completely different religious

background different morals and

government think about the difficulty

that salt lake has in being able to get

out and help strengthen the saints in

faraway countries that are just starting

out being taught and building up the

wards and the stakes it's a very

difficult process very hard to do and

here Paul is doing this without the

internet without travel other than by

foot mostly trying to relay this message

of the gospel to try and help the Saints

in these areas to stay firm and to

follow proper doctrine because it would

be so easy to fall away and of course we

know what happens it does they do fall

away and they do have an apostasy and

they're not able to hold it all together

as the Apostles are all killed off or

died and the authority is non-existent

and so he comes down here and says

something that all of us have probably

heard before by those that may be

critical of the church and in critical

of our theology he says in verse 7 but

there be some that trouble you and would

pervert the gospel of Christ but though

we or an angel from heaven preach any

other gospel unto you than that which we

have preached unto you let him be

accursed so thinking of Mormonism and

the restored gospel this is used

oftentimes by those that want to

challenge us and criticize the church

saying that we teach a different gospel

and that an angel that would be Moroni

came to Joseph Smith and preached a

different gospel gave him the Book of

Mormon which is a different gospel and

of course our belief with that is that

this is the restored gospel it is the

more complete gospel it is the fullness

of the priesthood and the fullness of

the gospel of Jesus Christ that Paul was

teaching in the first

and then he goes through as he has

before about his past remember he was a

Pharisee that persecuted the church

maybe more zealous than anybody else he

was the worst thorn in the flesh for the

new fledgling Church but then was

visited by the Savior a resurrected

Jesus Christ visited him and he was

called by the priesthood to teach the

new covenants to teach the gospel of

Jesus Christ and what's interesting here

is what he says we come down here to

verse 16 well back up to there and says

to reveal his son in me that I might

preach him among the heathen so again

this is his calling yes he goes to the

Jews everywhere he goes and teaches them

but he's going beyond the Israelites

right he's going beyond the religious

tradition of the Jewish and Israelite

people and their scripture to teach to

those that have no background with this

immediately I conferred not with flesh

and blood so he says I didn't look

around me to hear about other people's

opinions about the gospel what he does

first it says is neither went to I up to

Jerusalem so that would be with Peter

and John and James not the original

Peter James and John but this is the

James who is the Lord's brother James

had already been killed but he says here

in 17 neither went I up to Jerusalem to

them which were apostles before me so

those that have already been called to

the Apostleship but I went into Arabia

and returned again unto Damascus so

we've heard about this before NT right a

Pauline scholar one of the more

preeminent Pauline scholars says about

this he thinks that Paul went actually

to Mount Sinai and that would have been

a good place to go to start your

covenants so to speak with the Lord and

maybe introspection and trying to

commune with God that's possible

Margaret Barker another biblical scholar

has the opinion that he went to areas of

Arabia that would be actually further

north of where Arabia is now what the

Jews then called Arabia and that he may

have gone to those that already knew

about the gospel these would have been

those that would been would have been

descendants or spiritual descendants of

those that may have left at the time of

Lehi so we know Lehi and his family left

how many more people left Jerusalem that

would have had a similar experience and

would have had a similar knowledge about

the old ways that would be the original

gospel of Jesus Christ that had been

corrupted and so seeing the turn that

Jerusalem was taking and having the

feeling and understanding what Jeremiah

at the time was saying understanding

that Jerusalem was going to be destroyed

they also may have left we know that

it's written that there's 80,000 priests

even the left and went down to Arabia

and so he may have gone to a place there

where he learned the gospel from those

that had held on to this older tradition

of perhaps Jesus Christ coming as the

Messiah not just as the Messiah but as

the son of God

right that Jehovah was actually going to

come down in the flesh and take on the

sins of the world and talking about a

new covenant beyond just what was the

Old Covenant or the law of Moses and he

says in verse 18 then after three years

I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and

abode with him fifteen days now Margaret

Barker says that that means he was in

Arabia for three years I don't know if

that's actually true or not but

regardless he seems to have gone

somewhere to learn and to grow closer to

the Lord before he even spends his time

with Peter and John and others of the

church and he had just seen Jesus Christ

the resurrected Jesus Christ and he felt

that that's what he needed

do and then in chapter 2 we get a little

bit more of an understanding of Paul's

frustration and a little bit of

contention perhaps between him and the

Apostles that are in Jerusalem and he

points out that Peter and the new James

the Lord's brother and John are all here

they're primarily preaching to the

circumcised they're preaching to the

Jews

whereas Paul has a different mission and

he is out preaching to the

uncircumcised and as you recall going

back to Acts we had the story of Paul

going down to Jerusalem the council in

Jerusalem

where it was decided that the gospel

would be preached to the Gentiles and

that they would not need to be

circumcised but then there was a little

bit of a pushback right so this may have

gone out there and a lot of the Jewish

members of the church may have had a

real issue with this this was something

that was really a part of them it was an

identity to them that when they accepted

the Covenant with God they the men would

be circumcised and so to leave that

behind them was a very very difficult

thing and so he gives the example of

Peter going to Antioch and being with

Paul there and that before the other

Jews had come around him he was sitting

and eating with the Gentiles that was a

no-no for Jews but when the Jews came

and they were around him Peter would no

longer sit and eat with the Gentiles and

so Paul's point was hey look with the

act of circumcision you want the Jews to

not have to be like the Gentiles in

other words go eat with the Gentiles but

you want the Gentiles to be like the

Jews and get circumcised and Paul is not

okay with this he has a real issue with

it and apparently Peter may have had a

real difficulty as well adopting this

new idea of not having to have the

Gentiles circumcised so Paul goes back

and he relates to the Galatians

the higher and the lower laws and this

is what he says in verse 16 knowing that

a man is not justified that means made

whole complete righteous is not

justified by the works of the law of

Moses so that would be circumcision -

but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we

we have believed in Jesus

Christ that we might be justified by the

faith of Christ so not by the law not by

circumcision but by faith in Jesus

Christ and not by the works of the law

for by the works of the law shall no

flesh be justified

so he's separating this again he's

saying look the law of Moses only takes

us so far the works there okay fine they

were important for their time but that

law not the law of God that under that's

underlying that but the law of Moses is

basically fulfilled and the obedience to

that law the actions the rituals to that

law are not what make you righteous are

not what bring you back to God and in

fact it is a dead law because on its own

it only gets you so far but faith in

Jesus Christ is where you are justified

so this is an important thing to

understand with Paul's writings you have

on one side works the works of the law

that would be obeying the commandments

and the rituals and on the other side he

uses hear the term faith now we've seen

before in his writings where he has

instead the opposition of works and

grace so what is the parallel here that

we can look at well faith and grace are

basically he's talking about the same

concept from different sides what I mean

by that is that grace is what God did

through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

and through his love through his charity

to reach down to us it's part of the

higher law right it's not us reaching up

to him through obedience to command

so that would be the works but the law

here are the grace of God is the higher

law and he's taking a different

perspective on this from our end on

grace so it's not with God's grace

through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

and through his love we are to have

faith in that we are to have faith in

His grace we're to have faith in his

sacrifice in Gethsemane in the cross in

the tomb and his resurrection so faith

and grace are on the same side right

it's just coming from our perspective

with faith or with God's perspective

with grace and the other side of the

spectrum here or the lower law is works

so it's the same comparison as works and

grace works we move toward God grace is

brought down to us in this instance it's

our works going to God which we can

never earn our way back to God and

instead of grace it's our faith in His

grace it's our faith in his love and in

his sacrifice so that's how he uses the

term faith here in Galatians and then he

gives us an argument between works and

faith or grace he says here down in

verse 19 for I through the law am dead

to the law so just him just Paul or just

you or just me along with the law and us

obeying it and going through the

rituals and the commandments that is

dead on its own and we think well why

would the Lord give us something that is

dead well because he has to because it's

only a preparatory state the law is a an

absolute must it's part of the fall of

Adam and Eve and all of us we have to

have the law not necessarily the law of

Moses but a the law of God has to be

there but it is dead because we can't

follow it and he says so for I through

the law am dead to the law that I might

live unto God so works is not enough I'm

to sin I'm going to transgress I'm going

to fall short and because that is all

there then I might live unto God because

of his grace in verse 20 I am crucified

with Christ nevertheless I live so you

die with the law of Moses here he's

going to die with the law of Moses we're

all going to die along with the law even

today yet not I but Christ liveth in me

and the life which I now live in the

flesh I live by the faith of the Son of

God who loved me and gave himself for me

so in other words my primary focus here

is not just the obedience of the

commandments and the rituals the primary

focus here is me having faith in Jesus

Christ and that is the first principle

of the gospel and actually the second

principle of the gospel has to do with

the commandments and that is repentance

so Paul here is also putting that first

faith you first must have faith because

then you can repent understanding the

atonement and the sacrifice of Jesus

Christ finishing up the end of 20 here

says I live by the faith of the Son of

God who loved me how did he love him he

loved him through the sacrifice that he

gave and gave himself for me so that is

what needs to be the very top of our

values hierarchy and 21 here he flips

what he said in in 19 he says I do not

frustrate the grace of God that's what

he's talking about with faith I do not

frustrate the grace of God for if

righteousness come by the law in other

words if I'm justified by the law by my

works then Christ is dead in vain having

no meaning in other words in other words

if we can be justified by just obedience

and following through with the rituals

then there's no purpose to have Christ

Christ then is dead so which of the two

are dead

is it Christ or is it the law well the

law has everything around it that is

death whether it's the law of Moses or

the law of God because number one it is

given to us in a state of mortality and

we are all going to die physically and

number two it is the cause of in a sense

our spiritual death because we sinned

against the law so the law is together

with death and the law would be what we

would associate with the ironic

priesthood right the ironic priesthood

is the priesthood of Commandments and it

is the priesthood of repentance it is a

carnal priesthood a carnal law that is

administered with the ironic priesthood

a temporal priesthood and in the

Melchizedek Priesthood is centered on

the grace of Christ that is his

sacrifice Gethsemane the cross the tomb

and his resurrection and here in verse 2

of chapter three he asks the Galatians

in this letter received ye the spirit by

the works of the law or by the hearing

of faith so he's again he's trying to

convince everyone that the law of Moses

is not enough and verse three are ye so

foolish having begun in the spirit are

ye now made perfect by the flesh so now

we would recognize the spirit as being

faith and grace and the flesh as being

the law and that's the way that those

two would be opposing each other now

they're brought together through the

resurrection and that's what we're

supposed to do with the ironic and the

monistic priesthood so the ironic

priesthood would be the priesthood of

the flesh and the Melchizedek Priesthood

would be the priesthood of the spirit or

of spiritual things but he's saying look

you can't switch it back around you

can't you can't make the lower law the

higher law and the higher law of the

lower law this is about faith and grace

first and then the law and then

Commandments

and repentance and then he goes into

what we've seen a lot in the Gospels

which is this kind of this conflict

between Abraham and Moses right Abraham

is someone that the Jews in the time of

Jesus and John the Baptist was kind of

father Abraham to them but did not

represent the Melchizedek priesthood or

the higher priesthood Moses was King to

all of the Jews because Moses is the

one who brought the tablets down that

were the law of Moses the lower law now

remember that Moses went up the first

time to Sinai and was given the higher

law the Melchizedek law where

everyone could become priests just like

we can today it has nothing to do with

lineage but the people rejected it

they were transgressing we had the

golden calf and the partying going on

and they rejected specifically saying

that we they did not want to see the

face of God they did not want to be in

his presence we can think about that in

temple terms using temple imagery here

right Sinai is all about the temple or

the temple is all about Sinai and the

people did not therefore want to go

through the veil think of Solomon's

Temple they did not want to go through

the veil to the Holy of Holies they were

not willing to make that commitment they

were not willing to make those covenants

and they weren't ready for it and so

Moses goes back up Sinai and comes back

down with the lower law the law of Moses

the preparatory law that does what it

points you toward the higher law but is

dead by itself so Moses is the icon to

the Jews because of the law of Moses but

that is the lower law right

Abraham is what John the Baptist is what

Jesus and many others that are teaching

the gospel here of Jesus Christ are

referring to in terms of kind of the

icon

of the higher law remember the parable

of Lazarus the poor man

where was he gonna go he was gonna go to

the bosom of Abraham lied to the bosom

of Abraham because he would be the seed

of Abraham because of his faith and

because Abraham is in exultation and

that's what Abraham represents we talk a

lot about the Abrahamic covenant or the

new and everlasting covenant that is the

Melchizedek covenant it has to do with

marriage and other ordinances through

the temple and exaltation and all the

promises and blessings that go along

with that and so here he's bringing this

back up again

that was always a conflict between the

Jews and Christ the Jews and the

Apostles Moses versus Abraham and so

here Paul brings it up and he says here

in verse 6 even as Abraham believed God

so he's using believe here more in a

sense of faith and it was accounted to

him for righteousness

so in other words before the law of

Moses Abraham trusted in God he had

faith in God he had faith in the

sacrifice of Jesus Christ he had faith

that he would have an error that was

given to him very very old and the

Abrahamic covenant is about that

marriage and about the kids and about

building a family and then in verse 7 it

says know ye therefore that they which

are of faith the faith in Jesus Christ

the faith in grace the same are the

children of Abraham so here it has

nothing to do with the law of Moses it

has nothing to do with being an

Israelite Paul wants to make this very

clear he's teaching the Gentiles that

faith in Jesus Christ

like Abraham had is what is going to

justify you or help you be righteous or

land you back with our Heavenly Father

and Jesus Christ so faith is what makes

you of the seed of Abraham or the

children of Abraham

you think about John the Baptist talking

about how the stones there would easily

be made as children of Eve Abraham even

though the Jews could claim that they

were children of Abraham

in other words Gentiles anybody else

besides you could be of the seed of

Abraham and then in verse 8 and the

scripture foreseeing that God would

justify the heathen through faith

preached before the gospel unto Abraham

saying in thee shall all nations be

blessed so this is a very important

point remember that whenever we talk

about the Melchizedek priesthood Gentiles

are always a part of that and here we

have the fulfillment of everything that

Isaiah was talking about think about all

of the vision of Nephi as he goes

through and sees his seed his children

and Laman and Lemuel's children and how

they are blessed by Ephraim or by the

Gentiles this is all about Jesus Christ

and about faith in Jesus Christ being

available to everyone whereas the Book

of Mormon points out to all the Isles of

the sea and here Paul is the fruition of

that as he goes out and teaches the

Gentiles exactly this so how is it that

all nations will be blessed well you

don't need to be a villain a lineage of

Israel necessarily it means that you can

have faith in Jesus Christ and all those

who have faith in Jesus Christ can

become the seed of Abraham and then

quickly here in verse 12 and the law is

not of faith again just separating the

two here and verse 13 this gets kind of

interesting he says Christ hath redeemed

us from the curse of the law so why

would God give us a law that curses us

well because it's the only way it's the

only way this works is for us to learn

and to grow if we're coming from a non

perfect position and we're trying to get

to a perfect position we're going to go

through mistakes and troubles and

adversity that we have difficulty with

but obeying the commandments and

following the proper rituals brings us

back to Christ and points us to Christ

and then he says here at the end of 13

cursed is every one that hangeth on a

tree well the tree in this instant that

he's referring to is Christ on the cross

and he says for it is written well where

is that written it's written in

Deuteronomy if you look in 21

Deuteronomy 21:23 we get this little

nugget here this foreshadowing it says

his body shall not remain all night upon

the tree now this is not talking

specifically about Jesus it's talking

about a law but thou shalt in any wise

bury him that day for he that is hanged

is a cursed of God well Christ died in

mortality right along in a sense and

along with the law and so that's kind of

what he's saying here anyone that

hangeth on a tree is cursed anyone that

hangs on to death or the law of death is

going to be cursed because you can't be

perfect in following it

and then we go down to 16 and we're

gonna get into something really

interesting here now to Abraham and his

seed where the promises made again this

has nothing to do with Moses here this

has nothing to do with the law of Moses

this is way way before Moses and then

down in 18 we get this for if the

inheritance be of the law what

inheritance it's your inheritance

it's our inheritance it's the

inheritance that we share with Christ of

a greater glory of exaltation for if the

inheritance be of the law it is no more

of promise but God gave it to Abraham by

promise so in other words the promise of

the Abrahamic covenant is not given by

the law so you're going to fall short of

exaltation and all of those blessings

and all the Melchizedek that the mystic

priesthood can provide for you if you're

just focused on the law if you're only

focused on the Aaronic

right the lower law and in nineteen

wherefore then serveth the law it was

added in this case he's talking about

the law of Moses specifically it was

added because of transgressions again

when he came down the first time the

golden calf and the partying and the

denial of the greater covenant it was

added because of transgressions till the

seed should come this is Christ as the

seed till the seed should come to whom

the promise was made

that's Christ first so Christ has given

the promise we inherit to the promise

through him through Christ and it was

ordained by angels in the hand of a

mediator and in 20 now a mediator is not

a mediator of one but God is one so

we're gonna get something completely

different here that we want to go over

now in the Joseph Smith translation of

verses 19 and 20 we get something

completely different or much more

enriched and a greater understanding of

what's going on this is all about the

oath and covenant of the priesthood that

is what Paul is talking about the

promise is the oath we have this idea

sometimes and I've heard this many times

in quorum meetings so if you're a guy

listening to this and you've been in a

priesthood lesson you might hear that

you receive the Melchizedek Priesthood

which is what he's talking about through

Abraham the Melchizedek priesthood with an

oath and a covenant and that other words

we are making the oath and the covenant

but that's not true right that's not

what this is about the oath is not from

us the oath is from our Father in heaven

so the ironic priesthood is made with a

covenant but not with an oath in other

words there's no promise in other words

it's dead by itself the promise is

exaltation that's what the whole

promised land means what kind of a land

is it it's a promised land it represents

exaltation a place where we will go to

to have

shared inheritance with Jesus Christ in

the Book of Mormon it's interesting that

Lehi says before he ever arrives in the

promised land in the Americas he says

after a prayer and I think it might have

been after a vision I can't remember but

he says how great it was and how

grateful he is that he had received a

promised land

well he's not even in the promised land

what is he talking about well he's

talking about the promise through

Abraham and through the Melchizedek

Priesthood he's talking about the oath

and the Covenant of the priesthood

I believe so this is how Joseph Smith

puts it right in verse 19 it would be

like this

wherefore then the law was added because

of transgressions till the seed should

come to whom the promise was made in the

law given to Moses so the promise of the

higher law is the law is given to Christ

and we know that from the teachings in

the lower law were told about Christ who

was ordained of angels to be a mediator

of the first covenant or the law that's

Moses so Moses here is different from

Abraham Moses is the mediator of the

lower law the lower covenant the ironic

covenant and of course that's the way

the Israelites functioned that now the

prophets had the Melchizedek priesthood

but the priests were just like our

priests today in the church that was an

office in the erotic priesthood and that

was based on lineage only and then in 20

the JST says the following

now this mediator was not a mediator of

the new covenant so the Old Covenant or

the Old Testament I don't mean the book

Testament and covenant are the same

thing now this mediator was not a

mediator of the New Covenant or the New

Testament but there is one mediator of

the New Covenant who is Christ as it is

written in the law

the promises made to Abraham and his

seed so in the Torah we get the story of

Abraham and him trying to receive

exaltation and having glory and having

seed that would be multiplied beyond the

stars in the heaven or the sands of the

sea now Christ is the mediator of life

or the spirit for this is the promise

which God made unto Abraham the promise

was that there would be a savior that

would come and that would save us all

from the law right through His grace

through our faith in His grace and that

we would all be called inheritors of a

promised land of the promises of the

oath of the oath and covenant of the

priesthood and it is really interesting

that in the Joseph Smith translation you

know a lot of the little tiny changes

that you see we're not necessarily full

inspiration maybe in other words he's

probably using a guide well we know he

probably was he was probably using a

guide of a little bit of a better

translation here and there and you can

see that throughout there's a lot of

different words that are just very

slightly changed that doesn't really

have any impact no meaning but where it

does where there is actual insertions

of phrases or completes verses what you

see there is a focus on something and

that focus is on the Abrahamic covenant

contrasting it with the lower law and

you see that throughout the New

Testament you especially see that in

Genesis and that to me when I first kind

of went through the practice many many

years ago of looking at the Joseph Smith

translation and trying to see what the

message was in his changes what you see

is the fullness of the gospel that he is

putting in there and he is putting in

this contrast between Abraham and Moses

or the fullness of the law the New

Covenant and the ironic covenant or the

law of Moses

that would be in there and it's a

beautiful thing to see unfold as you go

through that whole process and see that

that is what is has perhaps been taken

out is that exact the higher law the

higher law of Jesus Christ the higher

law of Jehovah coming down and taking on

the sins of the world the higher law of

His grace and our faith in Him the

higher law of the Melchizedek Priesthood

the oath and covenant of the priesthood

which by the way is a blessing for men

and women it's kind of interesting to me

that oftentimes when there's a lesson on

the oath and covenant of the priesthood

well we often get that in priesthood

lessons I don't know how often the women

hear that or young women or even primary

here about the oath and covenant of the

priesthood but it's important for all of

us to understand and the place to learn

about that the best place to learn about

that is section 84 I highly recommend

that you go there and read section 84

you'll see this distinction between

Moses and Abraham the Melchizedek

Priesthood and the ironic priesthood and

the higher and the lower laws that Paul

is talking about here and that Joseph

Smith is inserting throughout the Bible

then he sums up this chapter here in

verse 28 and 29 by saying there is

neither Jew nor Greek the Greeks would

be the Gentiles there is neither bond

nor free there is neither male nor

female there is for ye are all one in

Christ Jesus

so we all have you know they're still

Greeks and they're still Jews they still

have their backgrounds but what he's

saying is that if you whether you're a

man or you're a woman or you're a Jew or

you're a pagan or we're a pagan you are

all one under Jesus Christ because of

faith because all of us can have that

faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ

and it is

I'll talk to you next time