"Drifting from Grace" September 24 Readings: Galatians 1-2

Today's Reading - Galatians 1-2

Background

Figuring out when Paul wrote his other epistles is generally easier than setting a date for Galatians, which has been much debated. The issues have to do with the identity of the Galatians and are likely not of interest to many of our readers - a basic Bible dictionary or encyclopedia would explain those issues for those who wish to go deeper. It seems best to identify the Galatians with the churches Paul visited on his first missionary journey and to place the book sometimes in about 49 AD, as he was headed back toward Jerusalem. During that journey, many Gentiles came to Christ and a great controversy was born as well. Did Gentiles need to be circumcised and observe Jewish law? In other words, does a Gentile have to become a Jew to be a Christian? Is the Jewish culture and heritage of the early church and the early Christians an essential part of the gospel or an impediment to the spread of the gospel to the nations? The backlash against Paul's ministry by those who demanded that Christianity not abandon its Jewish heritage was harsh, leading to sharp conflict and eventually to the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15. But in Galatians, Paul gave a direct and uncompromising answer to those sometimes called Judaizers. NO!

Jesus came to save sinners by grace and not by the law. It is not just a minor disagreement to require the keeping of the law as a requirement of salvation, it is "another gospel." Paul uses the harshest terms for these people - calling them accursed and wishing they would be castrated! There was no middle ground for him. Either salvation was of grace or it was of the works of the law and these could not be combined.

Outline of Galatians

1:1-10 Introduction - standard to Paul's writings
1:11-2:21 Defending the gospel of grace - a harsh defense of Paul's gospel, which he says he received from the Lord, and which he warns against departing from.
3:1-5:12  Explaining the gospel of grace - "The righteous live by faith"
5:13-6:10 Life in the Spirit - The life that results from salvation by grace is life in the Spirit.
6:11-18 Conclusion - written in Paul's own hand so that they would know that this harsh, stern letter was from him and that they would heed its warnings!

Devotional - Drifting from Grace

Henry Blackaby said that all human beings, even those who have been redeemed, have a natural tendency to depart from God. We are held by God's grace and our salvation is secure in Christ, but we have that inborn tendency to drift from our walk with the Lord back into the ways of the world and into sin.

Paul recognized a similar problem among the Galatians - a tendency to drift away from the gospel of grace and return to some form of works-based, law-focused salvation.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. Galatians 1:6-7

There is only one gospel that saves, Paul assured them, but they were still turning aside from the grace of Christ to a false gospel, one based on human works, one that could never save.

Deep inside of each of us is the idea that we ought to do something to earn the favor of God, that we need to change to please him, do something to make him love us more, or perform some heroic act to be worthy of God's grace.

But that is why we call it grace. You can't earn it and you will never deserve it. Nothing you can do will make God love you more and your sins do not make him love you less. That is not an excuse for sin, but a great comfort. It is by grace we are saved and it is by grace that we live.

Listen, my friend, your relationship with God is based on who Christ is and what he has done, not on who you are or your merit. You need to always resist that inner voice that says you've got to earn God's love. You ought to walk in holiness because God loves you, not so that he will love you. You need to fight that inner voice that says God must not love you anymore when you have failed. You resist sin out of gratitude for God's unmerited favor not out of a desire to earn it.

Like the Galatians, we have a constant tendency to slip away from grace and fall back into a works-based mentality. Since our salvation and our lives are all of grace, we must fight that tendency every day.

Father, I thank you that you have done for me what I could not do for myself. Help me to revel in your grace and never fall back into the works of the law. 

Think and Pray

Do you tend to depart from grace and live according to works of the law, trusting in yourself rather than in Christ?
Do you often forget that your "hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness?"
In prayer, thank God for your standing in Christ's grace and renounce the flesh!

Also remember that our standing in Christ is not an excuse for spiritual sloth or careless Christian living, but a motivation for holiness.