A new paraphrase of Paul’s letter to the Galatians and James’ letter to “the twelve tribes scattered among the nations” is planning to be soon published, including color photos of modern locations in Turkey and Greece that follow Paul’s missionary journeys—if its Kickstarter project is successful (click for details).
He says, “The Bible is the best source of information about being at peace with God so I have rephrased the letters of Galatians and James to serve two purposes: for those that have never heard, it’s a road map explaining how to be accepted by and at peace with God; and for those that have heard, it’s a road map for devotion and living the highest possible quality of life.”
The rephrasing of Galatians details how people can accept Jesus’ death in exchange for their own and in doing so become dead to God’s demanding law; they died with Jesus. Those that accept Jesus’ death are dead to the law, yet they’re living before God because of Jesus’ resurrection.
Here’s an example of Dr. Sammons’ paraphrasing from Galatians 2:
Let me make a personal example. When Christ was crucified, I (and every believer) was crucified through him before the Law. So now as I live, the Law sees me dead with Christ; now I live in complete trust and reliance in the Son of God who loved me so much that he died in my place. Therefore we must not treat God’s gift as something of minor importance. We should do absolutely nothing that would set aside, invalidate, or frustrate our gift from God.
For those that are living before God the rephrasing of James details how to live the highest possible life and how to demonstrate trust in God by the things we do.
From James 1:
Would you like your spiritual life to be perfect, complete, and not wanting anything? Then rethink your reaction to your occasional difficult events. Instead of complaining about them, greet them with joy because these events give you steadfastness, so stay with it, stay on course. If rejoicing about difficulties seems like a mystery then ask God for some wisdom on how to put it into practice—he’ll give you some ideas to follow and he won’t be upset that you ask. When the ideas come, act on them—they are God’s answer to your prayer.