Tag Archives: Galatians

I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Galatians 2:21

I read recently that Cheryl Cole is returning to the X Factor next series. Simon Cowell has managed to lure her back with an unfeasibly large salary. He suspects that this will win back all the show’s viewers that have recently detracted to Strictly Come Dancing. Not me, though. I don’t understand shows like the X Factor at all. It seems to be that the whole affair just gets dragged out more and more. I’ve often proposed that they could simply pick the best singer in the first week, and then we’d get back the rest of our lives. I actually think sometimes that this is in fact what happens; Cowell and his cronies select the best all-round package and develop them, priming them ready to release on an unsuspecting public. I’m told that this is a cynical view to take, however. Surely if the winner had been chosen in advance it would make a mockery of all the interminable preceding rounds.

In our passage today, Paul continues to educate the Galatians about the significance of Christ. He has tried to ensure that they understand that whilst the law of Moses can help us to identify our sin, it cannot take it away from us. We cannot find righteousness – that is, being right with God – simply by sticking to the words of the law. If we could be, then there would have been no point in Jesus dying on the cross. If our sin had already been lifted from us through the law, then Jesus would not have had to bear it on his shoulders on the cross. As a final way of telling his readers that salvation only comes through Christ, Paul shows up how utterly pointless Jesus’ death would have been if we had already been made righteous through following the law.

These verses are a warning to us; we cannot make ourselves righteous simply by following the law. If we want to be right with God, the only way – the one and only way – is to put our trust in Christ Jesus as saviour. This is cause for happiness, since if we were reliant on ourselves to make ourselves righteous, we would fail every time. It should also inform our evangelism as we speak to those who state they are good people, therefore God will accept them into heaven.

Give thanks today that Christ died in order that we might gain righteousness through his death. If it was not for him, we would be destined to spend a bleak and dark life on earth before dying an eternal death. Instead we have cause for jubilation, because Jesus has made us righteous!

“We who are Jews by birth and not sinful Gentiles know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified.”

Galatians 2:15-16

“I live a good life, so I’m sure that I will get into heaven when I die.”

“A loving God wouldn’t throw me into hell. I’m a good person. I love my neighbour and I always give to charity.”

“I might have done bad stuff in my life, but when I get to the gates of heaven, my good actions will outweigh the bad.”

I have no doubt that you’ve heard people make statements like these. Many people think that, if there is a God and a heaven, being ‘a good person’ is enough to pass through the pearly gates. These are misconceptions, however. In the passage from Galatians above, Paul is determined to clear up similar misconceptions and misunderstandings about how to be ‘justified’. Being ‘justified’ means being considered righteous by God, that is, being free of sin. Many people over the centuries have believed that the way to be free of sin, to be considered righteous, to be justified, is to live a good life. The Pharisees in the New Testament believed that to be justified one simply had to obey all the rules and laws ordained by God. Many people today believe that justification comes through being nice. All of these ideas suggest that it is possible for a person to be justified “by works,” by actions that they can take in their own lives.

Paul is absolutely clear, however, that this is not the case. He states this firmly in this passage: “a person is not justified by the works of the law”; “we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law”; “by the works of the law no one will be justified.” You might say that he leaves little wriggle room! If we are all fallen sinners (which we are), living in a fallen world (which we do), no matter how hard we try, we will never be righteous in God’s eyes. We can strive for perfection but we will never get there.

If Paul is clear that we cannot be justified through our own actions, he is also absolutely clear about how we can be justified: “a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ“; “we … have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ.” Justification comes from having faith in Jesus. This does not simply mean believing that he existed, or even believing that he is the Son of God. This means that we believe he is the Son of God AND that he died for us AND seeking to serve him in all that we do. In other words, it means inviting him into our lives and asking him to transform us, take our bodies as living sacrifices, and use us to build his kingdom where we live. The only way that we can be free of sin is to accept Jesus as our saviour, since through faith in him we die to sin; when he died on the cross he took all of our sin away from us and took our punishment. We are justified through his death and resurrection.

If we wish to be counted righteous by God, to be justified, and to be certain that we possess eternal life, it is not enough just to be a good person, or to live a good life, or even to follow the letter of God’s law. The only way to be certain of our destiny is to place our lives completely in the hands of Christ.

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Galatians 1:3-5

I arrived in my classroom one morning this week to find half a packet of digestive biscuits on my desk. When I say ‘half a packet’, it was one of those individual packs of biscuits you get with two or three biscuits. The packet had been opened and inside were the crushed remains of perhaps one and a half biscuits. Attached to the wrapper was a Post-It note with the words, “Dear Mr Lucas, hope your tumtum hungiveeeee so I got beesceets for yoooooo. Lucy wucy, Mehmeh & Aleh.”

Probably the quirkiest gift I’ve received, if not the most generous!

The most generous gift I have received is actually referenced in the verses above, a blessing to the people of Galatia from Paul. In this blessing, Paul wishes his readers “grace and peace” from “God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ,” before explaining just who this Jesus guy is.

The Lord Jesus Christ, Paul says, “gave himself for our sins.” Paul reminds us of some important truths right from the start of this letter. He tells us that we are all sinners. We have all done wrong in our lives that has led us away from God and his perfect creation. We deserve to be punished for our wrongdoing. But Jesus “gave himself” to pay the price of our sin. He freely went to the cross, knowing full well the pain that he would bear there. He did so willingly, though, so that you and I could be cleansed of our sin and find favour with God.

Jesus went to the cross “to rescue us from the present evil age.” He could have chosen not to go to the cross but he did. He could have allowed us to wallow in sin with no possible means of escaping from a bleak, lonely, depressing and futile future ending in death. He chose not to, though. His death and resurrection have provided us with a rescue boat to pull us from a pointless and dark existence and carry us on to an eternity with God in a new creation free of sin, fear, illness and death.

Paul adds that Jesus’ death was “according to the will of our God and Father.” The death of Christ was no accident, but a planned and desired action by God to send his son to live amongst his people, to teach his people, to serve his people, and ultimately to die for his people. We by no means deserve salvation and God could have turned his back on us once sin had entered the world. In an incredible act of love, however, he willed the death of his only son so that we might be saved.

What an incredible message we find lurking in just these few verses! God has given us an incredible gift in his son and it is only right and proper that we strive to honour and to serve him in all that we do. Perhaps too we should consider our own generosity to those around us. If God gave his son to save us, maybe we should be more willing to spend time loving and serving those around us.

Galatians 5:22-23

My bed, like that of many people, is against a wall. Well, actually, it’s against a window. That means that, short of jumping out of a first floor window (which would probably wake me up!), there is only one way to get out of bed. There are still days, though, when it does feel like I’ve got out of bed on the wrong side. Not because I’m battered a blue with broken legs, from jumping out of a window, but because I feel miserable and irritable. On those occasions, how the rest of the day progresses depends to a great extent on the behaviour of the class I am teaching during period one. If they are friendly and cheerful, and settle down to work hard, my spirits are lifted and the day gets better. If, however, they are loud and annoying, the day continues much in the same way that it started.

This, of course, is not a Biblical way of living, and I am trying hard to stop this from happening. In today’s verses, Paul tells the Galatians what the positive attributes of a godly character are, and says that this are gifts given to us by the Spirit. He tells us that love is important, since by loving those around us, we will reflect God’s character. Paul lists joy as his second fruit; if we take joy in God’s salvation, then we demonstrate that we are committed to serving him. Peace is next; we can have peace because Jesus has died for us, taking on our sin so that we can be at peace and approach God. Patience is a fruit of the Spirit, since we need to be patient and follow God’s plans for our lives, in his time, rather than purely following our own agenda. A futher fruit that flows from the Spirit is kindness, which means being gernous and considerate to all those we encounter. A Christian will demonstate goodness, since we place others before ourselves, and seek to serve them more than ourselves. We should demonstrate faithfulness, namely keeping our word, and honouring our promises and commitments. Jesus himself demonstrated the next fruit very clearly – he was the personification of gentleness. Do we follow his example? Are we kind and supportive to those we know. The final fruit of the Spirit that Paul mentions is self-control. If we are in Christ, the Spirit will help us to resist those temptations that could pull us away from Christ.

Do you demonstrate all of these qualities on a daily basis? Or, like me, do you have days when you are grumpy and miserable? Let’s pray together that the Holy Spirit will help us to demonstrate these qualities, so that we may better serve Christ, and those around us.