Galatians 2:17-21
The key ideas are: death and life, law and righteousness. The main argument that Paul is making is that the law makes the Jews aware of their sin - it does not provide righteousness. Christ provides righteousness as a person dies to himself and allows Christ to live in him. If there is anything else, besides faith in Jesus, that makes a person righteous, then Christ died for nothing.
I don't really understand v. 18 and in typical NIV Study Bible fashion, the notes don't have anything to say about that verse (they never have anything to say about the tough to understand or the controversial verses!). The two phrases, or ideas, that stand out to me are: 1) that I no longer live but Christ lives in me. I know what this means in terms of salvation but beyond that, it means that my life does not belong to me. My life belongs to Christ. I have surrendered it to him to use for his glory and his kingdom (I obviously don't live out the reality of that surrender 100% - or even 50% probably - but it is true nonetheless). This means every decision I face, every temptation that comes my way, every word that I say has to be evaluated in light of Jesus. 2) that if I add any legal requirements to the gospel message I am voiding the message and the death of Jesus. The good news message of Jesus is that we don't need to keep religious law or even perform any sort of religous practice to be accepted by God. It is simply through faith. Anything else makes salvation achievable by works which nullifies Christ's death. God, help me to live by faith alone, to speak of grace alone and to demonstrate your grace in the way that I accept people.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Jer, I really enjoyed what you had to say. It is so true. I really had problems today for some reason in my devos, but whjat you had to say was a blessing to me, I am glad that we are doing this together. God bless.
Post a Comment