*As we come to the end of the year please consider sharing some of your personal reflections ... Email me at ejmushlock@gmail.com *
Galatians 1-3
*Click here to read this passage:
Paul’s letter to the Galatians came about when he heard that some
Jewish Christians were teaching Gentile Christians that they had to keep the
Law of Moses in order to live righteous lives. As Paul says, this kind of teaching “perverts the gospel of
Christ.” “I do not set aside the
grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died
for nothing!”
I can understand how the concept of the grace of God can be hard
for people to grasp. Doesn’t it
make more sense that the more good things you do the better off you are with
God? There are other religions out
there that are all about following their religious law. They go through life just trying to do
everything they are supposed to do and rack up as many good deeds as they can,
but they never know for sure whether they will have an eternal reward or
not. There are even some groups
within the Christian faith that believe you have to go through certain acts
when you’ve sinned in order to receive forgiveness. But the gospel, the “good news” of Jesus Christ, the gospel
taught in the Bible says that it is by grace you have been saved. His grace is given freely to those who
believe in Jesus.
“Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God
does for you.” “Rule keeping does
not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more
and more rule-keeping.” “Christ
redeemed us from that self-defeating, cursed life by absorbing it completely
into himself.” (Verses taken from
Galatians 3:11-13 MSG)
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but
Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) We are to live
righteous lives because Christ lives in us, but we have to remember that our
righteousness and our salvation does not happen because of anything we can
do. It is kind of the “which came
first” thing … we receive salvation and a changed heart by the grace of God and
therefore we do good works and reflect the one living in us; we do not do good
works and live a certain way to earn salvation.
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