Exalting the Cross
139
of a crooked and perverse nation, ... as lights in the world, holding
forth the word of life.”
Philippians 2:15, 16
.
Every true minister feels a heavy responsibility for the spiritual
advancement of the believers entrusted to his care, a longing desire
that they shall be laborers together with God. He realizes that upon the
faithful performance of his God-given work depends in a large degree
the well-being of the church. Earnestly and untiringly he seeks to
inspire the believers with a desire to win souls for Christ, remembering
that every addition to the church should be one more agency for the
carrying out of the plan of redemption.
Having visited the churches in Pisidia and the neighboring region,
Paul and Silas, with Timothy, pressed on into “Phrygia and the region
of Galatia,” where with mighty power they proclaimed the glad tidings
of salvation. The Galatians were given up to the worship of idols; but,
as the apostles preached to them, they rejoiced in the message that
promised freedom from the thralldom of sin. Paul and his fellow work-
ers proclaimed the doctrine of righteousness by faith in the atoning
sacrifice of Christ. They presented Christ as the one who, seeing the
helpless condition of the fallen race, came to redeem men and women
by living a life of obedience to God’s law and by paying the penalty
of disobedience. And in the light of the cross many who had never
[208]
before known of the true God, began to comprehend the greatness of
the Father’s love.
Thus the Galatians were taught the fundamental truths concerning
“God the Father” and “our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our
sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil world, according to
the will of God and our Father.” “By the hearing of faith” they received
the Spirit of God and became “the children of God by faith in Christ.”
Galatians 1:3, 4
;
3:2, 26
.
Paul’s manner of life while among the Galatians was such that
he could afterward say, “I beseech you, be as I am.”
Galatians 4:12
.
His lips had been touched with a live coal from off the altar, and he
was enabled to rise above bodily infirmities and to present Jesus as
the sinner’s only hope. Those who heard him knew that he had been
with Jesus. Endued with power from on high, he was able to compare
spiritual things with spiritual and to tear down the strongholds of Satan.
Hearts were broken by his presentation of the love of God, as revealed