Tell Me Your Church is Studying Galations...
/Tell me your church is studying Galatians without telling me your church is studying Galatians…
A hot topic of conversation at our dinner table lately has been circumcision. With a house full of girls, you can imagine there are a number of questions. Notably, they are wondering, WHY DO WE KEEP TALKING ABOUT THIS AT CHURCH?! It’s a fair question, and it’s possible the Apostle Paul was wondering the same thing when he wrote his letter to the Galatians. These Gentile believers had clearly heard of the death and resurrection of Jesus for the forgiveness of their sins, trusted in Christ, and as a seal of their salvation they each received the promised Holy Spirit. They had even seen miracles worked in their midst. So why were they advocating for circumcision?
Paul tells them forthrightly they are being foolish. His frustration is evident. Is God’s grace sufficient or is it not? C’mon now! After beginning by the Spirit are you really going to try to finish by the works of the law?!
In our cultural context, all this talk of circumcision seems really odd. Less strange though, when we consider all the ways we, having begun by God’s Spirit, are still trying to please God by keeping “the law.”
“I’m not a good Christian because I …”
-Don’t pray as often as I should.
-Get really angry with my kids.
-Worry about pleasing people more than God.
-Can’t stop this sinful behavior.
-Don’t love my neighbor.
Fill in the blank. What causes you to hide from God (and others) in shame? What’s the thing that leads you to think “If I could only fix this, God would be happy with me?”
After calling them foolish (twice!) Paul gives the Galatians a plot twist. Remember Father Abraham? He “believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness”. Four hundred and thirty years before the law was given, God made a covenant with Abraham. You know what part he played in that covenant? A very little one! God was the covenant maker and the covenant keeper. Abraham slept through the whole bloody thing! All Abraham did was believe and even then, it was not his faith that saved him, but his God who saved him and accounted his faith to him as righteousness.
Brothers and sisters, if we have faith, we are Abraham’s spiritual seed. The same God who promised Abraham “All nations will be blessed through you”, has kept his promise and blessed us by sending his Son into the world, not to condemn it, but to save it. To save us!
Like the Galatians, we aren’t saved by doing all the right things, and avoiding the wrong ones. We are saved by grace, through faith, and are indwelled by the Spirit of Jesus who guides us into all truth and gives us the will and ability to crucify the desires of the flesh.
We don’t do the right things to please God. We do the right things because, in Christ, God is already pleased with us. Beloved, his disposition toward you never changes because it isn’t rooted in what you’ve done, but what he has done.
It’s all grace!
Natalie