GALATIANS
Galatians answers the question "Are we saved by believing or by achieving?"
Galatians is a letter of liberation that declares "freedom from bondage" to all who read it. It is a forceful, strong declaration of freedom based on grace. It is a letter celebrating the freedom we find only in Jesus Christ - not freedom to do whatever we please, but freedom from sin and freedom to obey and serve our Saviour.
Jesus Christ's death is sufficient to satisfy all of God's demands against sin. If I place my faith and trust in Christ, I am saved. Not what I have done for Christ, but what He has done for me on the Cross. I believe in Him. I am saved forever because of what Jesus has done. The Holy Spirit has come into my life to revive me and to empower me to live for Him.
Galatians 5:1 - For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.
The gospel is good news. When Jesus cried; "It is finished" on the Cross, all our sins were forgiven. Jesus is enough!
EPHESIANS
In Ephesians we find the good news about the riches available to us in Christ. That believers in Christ have been showered with God's kindness, chosen for greatness, marked with the Holy Spirit, filled with the Holy Spirit's power, freed from sin's curse and bondage, and brought near to God.
God has chosen us in Jesus Christ before creation. Jesus brings us to God by His blood. Gentiles and Jews have been given equal status in the body of Christ, the church.
The book of Ephesians affirms the glorious fact that believers in Christ have been showered with God's kindness, chosen for greatness, power, freed from the curse of sin and its bondage, and brought to God.
The church is in constant battle with the forces of darkness and Christians should use every spiritual weapon at their disposal.
