Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• New heavens and a new earth 65:17-25
  God not only will be faithful to His promises in spite of Israel's unfaithfulness (63:1-65:16), but He will demonstrate His ability and desire to provide righteousness for sinful humankind by creating new heavens and a new ea...
• Jesus' teaching about the nature of defilement 7:14-23
  Jesus continued His response to the critics by focusing on the particular practice that they had objected to (v. 5). The question of what constituted defilement was very important. The Jews had wandered far from God's will in...
• Saul's preaching in Damascus 9:19b-22
  9:19b-20 How verses 19b-20 fit into the chronology of events in Saul's life is not perfectly clear. They could fit in any number of ways. We should probably understand "immediately"in a general sense. As soon as Saul became a...
• The supernatural deliverance of Peter 12:1-19
  "Peter's rescue from prison is an unusually vivid episode in Acts even when simply taken as a story about Peter. Because it is not connected with events in the chapters immediately before and after it, however, it may seem ra...
• The advice of James and the elders 21:17-26
  21:17-19 As he had done before, Paul related to a group of elders what God had done on his missionary journeys among the Gentiles (14:27; cf. 18:23). This undoubtedly helped the Jerusalem church accept the gift that Paul had ...
• Historical Background
  Throughout the history of the church, from postapostolic times to the present, Christians have regarded Romans as having been one of the Apostle Paul's epistles.1Not only does the letter claim that he wrote it (1:1), but it d...
• 1. Freedom from sin 6:1-14
  Paul began his explanation of the believer's relationship to sin by expounding the implications of our union with Christ (6:1-14). He had already spoken of this in 5:12-21 regarding justification, but now he showed how that u...
• 3. The law's inability 7:13-25
  In verses 13-25 Paul continued to describe his personal struggle with sin but with mounting intensity. The forces of external law and internal sin (i.e., his sinful nature) conflicted. He found no deliverance from this confli...
• The new creation 5:16-17
  5:16 Paul now illustrated how Christ's love had changed his viewpoint. Since his conversion, he had stopped making superficial personal judgments based only on external appearances (cf. v. 12). Previously he had looked at peo...
• Historical Background
  "The most uncontroverted matter in the study of Galatians is that the letter was written by Paul, the Christian apostle whose ministry is portrayed in the Acts of the Apostles."1The Apostle Paul directed this epistle to the c...
• Outline8
  I. Introduction 1:1-10A. Salutation 1:1-5B. Denunciation 1:6-10II. Personal defense of Paul's gospel 1:11-2:21A. Independence from other apostles 1:11-241. The source of Paul's gospel 1:11-172. The events of Paul's early mini...
• A. Salutation 1:1-5
  Paul began this epistle with a word of greeting for his readers to introduce himself as the writer and to emphasize the divine source of his apostolic commission.1:1 The nickname (cognomen) "Paul"is from the Latin Paulus, whi...
• II. PERSONAL DEFENSE OF PAUL'S GOSPEL 1:11--2:21
  The first of the three major sections of the epistle begins here. We could classify them as history (1:11-2:21), theology (chs. 3-4), and ethics (5:1-6:10).". . . Paul was . . . following the logic of the Christian life: Beca...
• A. Independence from other apostles 1:11-24
  This is the first of three subsections in Paul's autobiographical account, the historical portion of the epistle. It relates Paul's early Christian experience and his first meeting with the church leaders in Jerusalem. The ot...
• B. Interdependence with other apostles 2:1-10
  Paul related other events of his previous ministry, specifically his meeting with the Jerusalem church leaders. He did so to establish for his readers that although he was not dependent on anyone but God for his message and m...
• C. Correction of another apostle 2:11-21
  Paul mentioned the incident in which he reproved Peter, the Judaizers' favorite apostle, to further establish his own apostolic authority and to emphasize the truth of his gospel.2:11 Peter had shaken hands with Paul in Jerus...
• 1. The experiential argument 3:1-5
  The apostle began to apply the principle stated in 2:15-21 to his audience.3:1 It is folly to mix law and grace. The Galatians were behaving as though they were under some kind of spell and not in full use of their rational f...
• The provision for victory 5:24-26
  5:24 The Christian has crucified the flesh in the sense that when he or she trusted Christ God broke the domination of his or her sinful nature. While we still have a sinful human nature, it does not control us as it did befo...
• Bibliography
  Allen, Kenneth W. "Justification by Faith."Bibliotheca Sacra135:538 (April-June 1978):109-16.Andrews, Mary E. "Paul and Repentance."Journal of Biblical Literature54:2 (June 1935):125.Barclay, William. The Letters to the Galat...
• The significance of Gentile believers' union with Jewish believers 2:14-18
  Essentially Jesus Christ's death has resulted in peace between Gentile believers and Jewish believers and peace between Gentile believers and God.2:14 To understand this verse we must discover what dividing wall Paul had in m...
• Paul's greater goal 3:8-11
  3:8 Paul had regarded his advantages over other people as what put him in a specially good position with God. However, he had come to realize that absolutely nothing apart from Jesus Christ's work on the cross was of any valu...
• Paul's message 1:25-27
  Paul's role in the household of God (the meaning of "stewardship") was that of a servant who fully expounded God's revelation for the benefit of his Gentile readers."He was a servant of the church, but in the deepest sense he...
• C. The false doctrines of men 2:16-23
  Having revealed what believers have in Christ, Paul next pointed out the errors of the false teachers more specifically to help his readers identify and reject their instruction."Sad to say, there are many Christians who actu...
• 1. How the gospel was delivered 2:1-12
  Paul proceeded to rehearse the events of his ministry among his readers summarizing his motivation and actions. He did so to strengthen their confidence in him in view of questions that may have arisen in their minds and accu...
• Rationale 3:3-8
  3:3 To motivate his readers to obey these commands Paul encouraged them by reminding them of the way they used to be. They had already come a long way. Each characteristic he mentioned in this verse contrasts with one he had ...
• 4. An objection 2:18
  James next introduced an objection to his thesis that faith is dead without works. He put it in the mouth of a hypothetical objector. This literary device of objection and response was a common one that Paul also used (Rom. 9...
• 1. Renouncing sin reaffirmed 3:4-9
  "The present vv, 3:4-9, form six strophes, each of which divides . . . roughly into half. The two halves of the strophes balance one another; for the second part of the v provides a development of the first part (vv 4, 5, 7),...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

• From Centre To Circumference
  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.'--Gal. 2:20. WE have a bundle of paradoxes in this verse. First, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I ...