This is our third week
walking through Galatians together. Paul starts this chapter off with
a reminder of some great news:
"So Christ has truly
set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don’t get tied
up again in slavery to the law." (Galatians 5:1)
And then he goes on to say
this:
" Listen! I, Paul, tell
you this: If you are counting on circumcision to make you right with
God, then Christ will be of no benefit to you. I’ll say it again.
If you are trying to find favor with God by being circumcised, you
must obey every regulation in the whole law of Moses. For if you are
trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have
been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."
(Galatians 5:2-4)
Okay, so this isn't
something we actually struggle with in our time. There are very few
people who believe circumcision equals "right with God."
But we can plug in almost anything else here and it would be the
same. "If I just read my Bible enough," "If I go to
church enough," "If I serve others enough," "If I
pray for enough minutes in the day..." No! None of it! It's all
great stuff, but you don't need it to be made right with God. There
is nothing, nada, zero things that we can do as imperfect humans to
make ourselves right with God! And that's why Paul is reiterating all
of this over and over again. We need Jesus for that!
Now don't get me wrong, you
should be reading your Bible and talking to God; church is an
important way to fellowship with other believers and serving others
is awesome. But none of it, by itself, will ever make you good enough
for God. Again, only Jesus's gift- accepted by you- can do that. Paul
says this well in these verses:
"But we who live by the
Spirit eagerly wait to receive by faith the righteousness God has
promised to us. For when we place our faith in Christ Jesus, there is
no benefit in being circumcised or being uncircumcised. What is
important is faith expressing itself in love." (Galatians 5:5-6)
"Faith expressing
itself in love!" That would make a great t-shirt, don't you
think? ;) Seriously though, from here, Paul offers up a warning:
"You were running the
race so well. Who has held you back from following the truth? It
certainly isn’t God, for he is the one who called you to freedom.
This false teaching is like a little yeast that spreads through the
whole batch of dough! I am trusting the Lord to keep you from
believing false teachings. God will judge that person, whoever he is,
who has been confusing you." (Galatians 5:7-10)
Be careful that you don't
imply to new believers or to those who don't yet believe that they
must fix themselves before God will want a relationship with them.
It's not true. Remember that in Romans 8:38-39, Paul tells us that
there is nothing that can separate us from God's love. He loves us
period. End of sentence. We can never make ourselves good enough.
Again, only Jesus!
"Dear brothers and
sisters, if I were still preaching that you must be circumcised—as
some say I do—why am I still being persecuted? If I were no longer
preaching salvation through the cross of Christ, no one would be
offended. I just wish that those troublemakers who want to mutilate
you by circumcision would mutilate themselves." (Galatians
5:11-12)
Salvation is defined as
"being saved or protected from harm, risk, etc." We are
saved and protected from harm though the cross of Christ.
"For you have been
called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don’t use
your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom
to serve one another in love. For the whole law can be summed up in
this one command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' But if you are
always biting and devouring one another, watch out! Beware of
destroying one another." (Galatians 5:13-15)
Yesterday my kids got to
practice using their freedom to "serve one another in love."
You see, there is a fight that happens every time we get in the van
without Shaun. Andrew sits up front with me (sometimes he's driving,
sometimes not). This means that someone is always alone in the back
and there are tears. Well, yesterday I got tired of the fight. And so
I told them that they'd be practicing loving one another. And they
did. Throughout the rest of the day, they made one another lunch,
jumped on the trampoline, climbed trees, played games, said kind
words- all to compete with each other to be loving. Haha. How nice
would the world be if we all did this each and every day? If we went
out of our way to be kind and to offer up extravagant love (see
Ephesians 5:1-2 MSG) for one another?
I pray that today will be
another good day and not one of "biting and devouring one
another" as Paul describes it above. ;)
No comments:
Post a Comment