This morning, I was reading in Galatians via The Message Remix and have been pondering the Law vs. Grace quite heavily these days. It seems like the church continually wants to resurrect the Law in so many aspects, all the while claiming to be free from it. It does not seem like you can have it both ways though, does it? I mean you can't be a slave to the Law AND be totally free at the same time. The very thought is contradictory in itself.
The Amplified Bible, in Matthew 6:24 reads, "No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will stand by and be devoted to the one and despise and be against the other. You cannot serve God and mammon (deceitful riches, money, possessions, or whatever is trusted in). And it is the "whatever is trusted in" that determines what/whom we are fully serving. Do we place our trust in the One True and Holy God or in our own abilities, accomplishments and plans? For if we do the latter, then we are not doing the former. It just doesn't work!
Over and over again, I read in Galatians about trusting in Christ, not the Law. The more I read, the more convinced I have become that our traditions and teachings that come from many pulpits echos Galatians 4:17 "They eagerly seek you, not commendably, but they wish to shut you out so that you will seek them." (NASB) And I really like how The Message puts that same scripture: " Those heretical teachers go to great lengths to flatter you, but their motives are rotten. They want to shut you out of the free world of God's grace so that you will always depend on them for approval and direction, making them feel important."
This has been so central in my frustration lately, I feel like I will burst if I don't release this word. And, I speak to myself in all of this! God is so good and faithful at showing us our own hearts and what motivates us. I find myself sickened at my own selfishness and tactics self-preservation when I am supposed to 'die daily'. That flesh vs. spiritual battle rears its ugly head once more...but, thankfully, the victory is the Lord's.
The church has become full of old Paul's - you know, that man who continually persecuted Christians for their beliefs until he met Jesus face to face and was transformed from within. Paul was an excellent student of the Law. Paul himself addressed this in the book of Galatians, chapter 1 where he says in verses 13-15: "I'm sure that you've heard the story of my earlier life when I lived in the Jewish way. In those days I went all out in persecuting God's church. I was systematically destroying it. I was so enthusiastic about the traditions of my ancestors that I advanced head and shoulders above my peers in my career. Even then God had designs on me."
What we need is that face to face, blinding encounter with Jesus. Then I wonder why it takes such a thing to get get our attention anyway? Because we are trying to do it all ourselves....that's why!
The purpose of the Law was "...to make obvious to everyone that we are, in ourselves, out of right relationship with God, and therefore to show us the futility of devising some religious system for getting by our own efforts what we can only get by waiting in faith for God to complete his promise. For if any kind of rule-keeping had power to create life in us, we would certainly have gotten it by this time. " Galatians 3:21-22.
So what was this promise we are waiting on? Faith in Jesus, being set right in our relationship to the Father God through Jesus Christ. Galatians 23-27, "Until the time when we were mature enough to respond freely in faith to the living God, we were carefully surrounded and protected by the Mosaic law. The law was like those Greek tutors, with which you are familiar, who escort children to school and protect them from danger or distraction, making sure the children will really get to the place they set out for. But now you have arrived at your destination: By faith in Christ you are in direct relationship with God. Your baptism in Christ was not just washing you up for a fresh start. It also involved dressing you in an adult faith wardrobe—Christ's life, the fulfillment of God's original promise. "
The free life in Christ does not involve any other mediator other than Jesus. A priest, pastor, teacher, prophet, apostle or
Galatians 3:10-12, "...anyone who tries to live by his own effort, independent of God, is doomed to failure. Scripture backs this up: "Utterly cursed is every person who fails to carry out every detail written in the Book of the law." The obvious impossibility of carrying out such a moral program should make it plain that no one can sustain a relationship with God that way. The person who lives in right relationship with God does it by embracing what God arranges for him. Doing things for God is the opposite of entering into what God does for you. Habakkuk had it right: "The person who believes God, is set right by God—and that's the real life." Rule-keeping does not naturally evolve into living by faith, but only perpetuates itself in more and more rule-keeping, a fact observed in Scripture: "The one who does these things [rule-keeping] continues to live by them."
It is impossible to earn your way to God or to earn His approval by any means other than Jesus. Even those who have asked Christ into their hearts still have that fleshly tendency to strive and strive in working FOR God, doing things for Him when we really don't have to or need to. Jesus died for our freedom from the flesh and its dead ways. He rose again, giving us victory to do all things THROUGH CHRIST because He alone is our strength.
I encourage you this day with this word:
But Jesus' priestly work far surpasses what these other priests do, since he's working from a far better plan. If the first plan—the old covenant—had worked out, a second wouldn't have been needed. But we know the first was found wanting, because God said, Heads up! The days are coming when I'll set up a new plan for dealing with Israel and Judah. I'll throw out the old plan I set up with their ancestors when I led them by the hand out of Egypt. They didn't keep their part of the bargain, so I looked away and let it go. This new plan I'm making with Israel isn't going to be written on paper, isn't going to be chiseled in stone; This time I'm writing out the plan in them, carving it on the lining of their hearts.I'll be their God, they'll be my people. They won't go to school to learn about me, or buy a book called God in Five Easy Lessons. They'll all get to know me firsthand, the little and the big, the small and the great. They'll get to know me by being kindly forgiven, with the slate of their sins forever wiped clean.By coming up with a new plan, a new covenant between God and his people, God put the old plan on the shelf. And there it stays, gathering dust."
Leave your old ways, plans and programs on the shelf. Awaken to a new life, one of freedom in Christ alone!
