The Walking Dead - Gospel Freedom in Galatians - October 30 Readings: Galatians 2:15-21

 

 

Gospel Freedom in Galatians  

Background: What was the key issue in the early church? Race. Culture. Issues that are still with us today. The church at its inception on Pentecost was essentially 100% Jewish and the Apostles and the church in Jerusalem seemed content to keep it that way. Then God called a Pharisee named Saul to salvation and set him aside as an Apostle to the Gentiles. Over the next 30 years, the church became primarily Gentile with a Jewish minority, and many Jews fought it. 

Galatians was Paul's first letter, written at the end of his first missionary journey when Gentiles began to come to Christ in droves. A group, sometimes called Judaizers and sometimes the circumcision party, opposed the inclusion of Gentiles in the church. If they were to be part of the church, they needed to become Jewish - follow the law and Jewish rituals. Paul fought them tooth and nail his entire ministry. The gospel was for the whole world. 

Galatians is a powerful argument for a gospel free from the works of the law. 

As often as time allows, the reader is encouraged to read the entire book - it will not take more than a few minutes. Each day we will work our way through the book passage by passage. 

Today's Reading:  Galatians 1-6  Focus Passage - Galatians 2:15-21

We are Jews by birth and not “Gentile sinners,” 16 and yet because we know that a person is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we ourselves have believed in Christ Jesus. This was so that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no human being will be justified. 17 But if we ourselves are also found to be “sinners” while seeking to be justified by Christ, is Christ then a promoter of sin? Absolutely not! 18 If I rebuild those things that I tore down, I show myself to be a lawbreaker. 19 For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live for God. 20 I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died for nothing.

Through the Bible Readings: Ezekiel 5-6, 1 Timothy 3, Psalm 119:81–88, Proverbs 26:17–19 

If you wish to read through the Bible in a year, follow these readings. 

Devotional:  The Walking Dead    

"Do your best for Jesus." 

"If you do your best, God will do the rest." 

"All God asks for is your best." 

I have heard statements like this all my life, and they miss the point. The Bible never puts the onus on us, on our strength and power and ability, to accomplish things for God. Yes, we are to seek him and give ourselves over completely to him. There is a biblical sense in which we are to seek, and strive, and try. But the Scriptures tell us that "it is God who works in us both to will and to act." It says, "Faithful is the one who calls you, he will do it." God works in us to accomplish his will and his purposes. 

Here, Paul is explaining that it is not by the works of the law that we gain standing with God (as a way of showing that Jew and Gentile stand before God as one - there is no difference). In verses 20-21, Paul gives one of those highlight passages, an explanation of both salvation and sanctification. 

He has been crucified with Christ, but he still lives. This is one of the primary problems with evangelism today - we want the resurrection without death. No one can be raised to a new life in Christ unless they die to the life they had without Christ. The old life is gone. "We were buried with Christ by baptism into death..." The beginning of our new life is death. Paul says, "I no longer live." We are the walking dead. 

And yet, he does live, but it is a different kind of life. "Christ lives in me." It is not a life where he simply tries to do what he can for God, but where the indwelling Christ, through the Spirit, works out his life, his power, his grace through Paul. He lives a life of faith, dependent on the power of God at work in and through him. 

Our lives reproduce the work of Christ. He died and rose again. When we come to Christ, we die to the life we had without him and rise to walk a new life in him, one lived by Christ's power for Christ's glory and according to Christ's will. We live by faith in the one who gave himself for us. 

Father, may my life be lived daily for you and for your Son, who gave himself for me. 

Think and Pray:

Are you simply "doing your best" for Jesus, or are you living in the supernatural power of God?