Messages with tag - Circumcision

What is the meaning of circumcision and what is its importance? Listen to this lesson to learn about its beginning with Abraham. Hear seven points that explain it. See what circumcision came to mean in the Second Temple period. Find out what an uncircumcised heart is and its meaning today.

Dreams and visions sometimes gave the Apostle Paul his marching orders on his second missionary journey. Can we depend on them to give us a helping hand? Listen to this lesson to learn how direct revelation has ceased but how the Bible has all the answers we need now. See how the Holy Spirit made it possible for a wealthy businesswoman to understand the good news of the gospel. Find out about Paul's run-in with a slave girl and a demon and how demon influence can impact all of us today.

After we're saved, do we have to work our heads off and follow a lot of rules to please God? This was the burning question being debated in the early church. Many of the Jewish-background believers demanded that new Gentile converts be circumcised and follow the Mosaic Law. Paul stood his ground, keeping his eye on the central issue of grace for both salvation and spiritual life. Follow the chronology of Paul's trips to Jerusalem and see the development of this issue as it is resolved. Understand the difference between legalists performing certain rituals to give them special standing in God's eyes and legitimate practices that lead to spiritual growth.

As human beings under condemnation, we really do not want to think about reality, but God's Word forces us to. We have all been tainted by sin and exhibit hostility toward God. True peace was broken when Adam sinned, and his fall had both spiritual and physical consequences. Full reconciliation is necessary. As we continue our study in Colossians 1:20-21, we look at the correlation to what Paul is teaching in Ephesians 2:11-17. With reconciliation, we see how God transformed hostility to peace, making it possible to have fellowship with a Righteous God by the legal, forensic action accomplished once and for all by Jesus Christ on the cross. What was the distinction between how salvation was taught in the Old Testament compared to the New Testament? Where do atonement and reconciliation fit in?

And how does reconciliation relate to illegal immigrants? The difference between how the Jews had the Messianic hope, but the Gentiles were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel had to be addressed. This lesson reveals how Christ removed the barrier of hostility between Jews and Gentiles that had existed since the Mosaic Law.